Risen
by All Hail The King
Summary: After falling to Sasuke at the Valley of the End, Naruto is sent to suffer a fate equivalent to living in hell. 3 years later, he is sent back into the world, determined to rid it of those that would hurt the people he cares about. Forced to bear the burden alone, he struggles to bring down the Akatsuki and save the ninja world. Will he succeed? Or will he lose himself to the pain?
1. Chapter 1

Risen

Disclaimer: I do not own _Naruto. _Any recognizable characters, locations, and concepts are property of Masashi Kishimoto. There may be times in the story that scenes from the anime _Naruto _appear in this story, such scenes belong to Kishimoto and those at VIZ media. No copyright infringement is intended, I am just doing this for fun.

A/N: Also, the premise of Naruto being taken to Madara after his supposed death at the hands of Sasuke does not belong to me, the idea came from a writer named juubiwriter99, from his story _Madara's Student_. I asked if I could use the premise for this fic, to which he agreed. There are similarities at the beginning, but the two stories differ greatly. His story, _Madara's Student,_ is a good read, if anyone is interested.

I'll try to update this often, I'm not entirely sure how frequent updates will be. This next three or so weeks is a busy time for me, with papers, projects, and finals coming up, so at first, updates might be slow, but they will definitely begin to pick up after I'm done with all the tests and stuff.

This story is dedicated to a very special friend of mine. I only met her recently, but she has become a joy to talk to and to get to know. She encouraged me to write this story after I mentioned it to her, and was the first to see the first chapter. She loved it, and asked (demanded) that I continue, so here I am, writing and posting. So, to her, I say thank you!

Also, a big shout out to Chie, Coco, and Morality for being the beta readers with this fic, their insight has really helped me so far!

This story is an NS story, and if you don't like it, I'm sorry, but NS is the only pairing that I acknowledge, as I will never acknowledge something as forced as NH and as disgusting as SS, where Kishimoto had to completely destroy the characters of both Naruto and Sakura to make those pairings happen. To me, NS is and always has been canon, and there is nothing that anyone can tell me to make me think otherwise. Hopefully you enjoy!

* * *

><p>Chapter One<p>

"Interesting. Very interesting," a voice spoke, malice and ill-will dripping from every syllable. The figure the voice belonged to was shaded by the clouds drifting over the moon. The night was dark, eerily dark, in the wake of the battle that had just been fought below the cliff the man was standing. The surrounding woods smelled of scorched earth, burning trees, singed flesh, and blood.

The figure watched on from above as a boy, 13 years old, was standing on top of a lake. The child had dark hair, almost jet black. His blue shirt was torn and ragged, there were stains of blood on it. Blood from both him, and the boy he was standing over. The boy stood there, lingering over the body below him. A torn orange jacket worn by the body was covered in blood. Blood was everywhere. It matted the sun-kissed blonde hair, dripped from the boy's mouth and nose, and covered the child's chest. The only thing that wasn't dyed red with gore was an emerald colored necklace that hung from his neck. The necklace was diamond in shape. It was a rare piece of jewelry, incredibly rare. As it should be, since the necklace formerly belonged to the Shodaime Hokage. An inch to the right of the necklace, a hole the size of a fist was present in the boy's chest, just below the heart. The ribs in the vicinity were cut clean through, the lung suffered the same fate.

The shadowy figure looked on as the boy clad in blue stepped over the body of his former comrade, teammate, best friend, and brother. Sasuke Uchiha didn't look back, not one time, at the body floating behind him. Why should he? That boy was trash, as proven by his predicament. He was an obstacle to power. Nothing more. Nothing less. He was worthless, not even worthy to secure a glance backwards. Not to Sasuke. Sasuke was on a mission to kill his brother, Itachi. Anybody that got in his way would die. Period. It didn't matter who they were, friend or foe. That miserable piece of garbage laying on top of the water found that out the hard way. It was already bad enough that the loser behind him managed to push Sasuke as far as he did, breaking one of his arms and what felt like all of his ribs. Cuts were everywhere, his right ankle was hot and swollen. It was a blow against his Uchiha pride that someone managed to cause his body this type of damage, but an even bigger blow still when one considered that "Dead Last" was responsible for his injuries. Sasuke walked on, fuming at this embarrassment, and not once did he realize that he was being watched.

The blonde boy's breathing was shallow. Every part of him burned. Broken bones all over. Everything hurt. He slowly opened a bright blue eye and shifted his gaze at the person walking away. A tear slid down his face, mixing with blood as it fell, finally falling off his head, to the red water below. His vision blurred and cleared repeatedly. It was getting harder to breathe. He was dying. He knew it. Dying at the hands of the man he believed to be his brother. His teammate. His best friend.

The blonde boy had heard once that right before you die, your life flashed before your eyes. Apparently, such an occurrence was to help the dying realize things that they might have taken for granted. Or maybe it was to comfort the dying person. As if some unknown force was trying to ease the dying into accepting their fate by showing them happy memories of their life. Fuck that. Not for this kid. It's not like he had an abundance of happy memories to begin with. The villagers back home hated him, and always had. They made his life hell. Beatings merely for existing were a regular occurrence for him. Overcharging him for food that he already didn't have the money for was also common. Stones, tomatoes, bottles, anything that you could throw was fair game, as long as he was the target. The never ending glares he got made him feel like shit. No. He didn't have many happy memories. He'd be damned if he let some wannabe "higher power" govern what he could think about before he died. So, in an act of defiance, and a giant "Fuck You" to any god that might be watching over him, he chose what he wanted to think about. A pair of emerald eyes floated to the forefront of his mind. The most beautiful eyes he had ever seen. The eyes rested on a perfectly formed face, topped by beautiful pink hair. The most dazzling smile he had ever seen rested on her face.

_"Please, bring him back. Bring Sasuke-kun back to me! You're the only one who can do it!"_

A pang of sadness filled his heart. The girl he loved did not love him back. He was dying, and the one who did it was the one who the girl loved. Life was truly fucked up like that. He never even got to tell the girl how he felt. But he didn't deserve to. In his mind at least. He failed her. He was dying, and she would be sad, but because he failed his mission to her. He broke his promise of a lifetime to her, and she would be sad. His mission in life was to be Hokage, and make that girl smile, preferably as her husband. But he was trash. He would make her sad. He would take away her smile because he failed her. He was trash.

_"Sorry Sakura-chan," _he thought, tears flowing freely. _"I failed to bring Sasuke back, like you asked me to. I failed you. Again. I'm sorry. I'm so sorry."_

And the light left his eyes.

* * *

><p>The figure on the cliff stood, exuding malice. The fight he had witnessed piqued his interest for multiple reasons. The potential of the two broken ninja was one, shadows that danced in the past being another. He began to walk forward, towards the edge of the cliff.<p>

"So, are you going to tell me what you found so interesting? Or are you going to keep standing there?" another voice asked. This voice was unlike the first. Whereas the first reeked of evil intent, this voice rang of sarcastic merriment.

"Shut up," The first voice demanded. He took another step, preparing to jump down to the lake below, before stopping. A haze of red surrounded the fallen body floating on the lake. The haze turned into a bubble, growing larger and larger until it erupted, shooting high into the sky, dispersing amid the night.

"What was that?" the second voice asked.

"You didn't recognize that chakra? It was obviously the chakra of the Kyuubi. It dispersed from the boy. He is dead."

"But won't that hinder the plans of the Akatsuki? It will take years for the Kyuubi to return to form."

"It will take time, yes, but we aren't yet fully prepared to reign in the Bijuu. Now shut up and let's go." With that the figure jumped down to the lake, walked across the surface, stopping just in front of the boy. The heavy cloud that had previously covered the moon shifted, allowing the pale light of the moon to wash over the figure. To say he looked strange was an understatement. He wore a black cloak adorned with red clouds. Sprouting from the top of the cloak was a jagged, plant-like protrusion surrounding the man's head. The man's face was half white and half black, to the left, the white part of the face, with a golden eye, to the right, the black with a pale white eye.

The man, named Zetsu, looked down at the boy in front of him. He looked like shit. Blood everywhere, cuts all over the body, disheveled hair. The boy looked pathetic. Killed by his best friend. By his brother. That's what he got for having hope in this world. But it didn't matter. Hope was never meant to be. Hope was an illusion. Zetsu's mother would see to that. He turned to walk away from the wreck, he was no use to Zetsu as he was now. He was no longer the host of the Kyuubi. The beast could not be extracted, as it was a part of the world now. It would come back later, and the Akatsuki would capture it then. He took a step, then stopped as he heard a fizzling noise. Confused he looked back to the boy. And stared. What the fuck was going on? The boy is dead. But the cuts were healing. The hole in his chest was closing. The fizzling stopped a minute later. The boy was still not breathing. Both White Zetsu and Black Zetsu's eyes widened when they say a surge of electrically charged chakra cackle and spark around the part of the chest above the boy's heart. The child's chest jumped. Chakra sparked again. The child's chest jumped again. What was going on?

"Is he…resuscitating himself?" White Zetsu asked aloud, wonder seeping through his voice.

"Impressive," Black Zetsu spoke. He was at a loss for words. _'This boy was dead a minute ago. The Kyuubi left his body. That only happens if the host dies, or if there was an extraction. There could not have been an extraction of the Kyuubi, I am the only one in the vicinity. And supposing for a second that a Bijuu gets extracted from its container, the host dies. Either way, the boy should be dead. What the fuck is happening? Is it Ashura? It could be. He is the reincarnation of Ashura, after all. But Ashura never gets involved with the lives of his vessels. He lets the vessel achieve greatness on his own merits. Unlike Indra. No. Indra aided in the development of all of his vessels. Sasuke Uchiha was a testament to that. Sasuke would have never advanced as far as he did to this point without the aid of Indra. The awakening of the Sharingan, the ability to use the famed Uchiha fire jutsus, the ability to survive and control Orochimaru's curse mark. None of that was achieved on his own, all of that was under Indra's influence. But not once in the past has Ashura ever interfered with the workings of his vessels. Could it be that he decided this one time, to step in? Why? Was it because of how the fight ended? It's true, the boy could not deal the death blow on the Uchiha brat, which the Uchiha took advantage of. He showed the Uchiha mercy, and the Uchiha killed him for it. But here he is, injuries healed, and in the midst of bringing himself back to life.'_

"What should we do about this?" White Zetsu asked.

"…The boy has potential. He is an Uzumaki, blood relative of the Senju. He has healing abilities even without the Kyuubi. He has mastered interesting high level jutsu at a tender age. With a little push, he could become a perfect tool for us to use. We will-" Black Zetsu stopped mid-sentence. Someone was approaching them, and fast.

"I will take him back to Madara with me. Split off from me and transform into him, from before he healed," Black Zetsu ordered, taking off his cloak.

A grotesque squelching noise was heard as Zetsu completely split in half, White and Black no longer occupying the same body. Black Zetsu slipped his Akatsuki cloak back on. White Zetsu leaned down and touched the boy's chest. He started to grow smaller, shrinking down to the boy's height, taking his appearance as well. The only difference was that White Zetsu took Naruto's injured form from a few minutes prior. Zetsu was able to change appearance based on memory, if he saw what something looked like at some point in time, he could transform into it. By touching the target that he wanted to transform into, he was able to copy their chakra signature as well as utilize jutsu the target possessed, though not to as high a degree. Black Zetsu charged chakra in the tips of his fingers and touched the hole on White Zetsu's chest, replicating the effect of a Chidori on a body. White Zetsu moved near a tree that was ablaze, Black Zetsu and the boy following. They stripped the boy of his clothes and White Zetsu put them on. The tree itself was partially destroyed, and partly sat in a crater from the fight it had witnessed. White Zetsu, now looking like the boy who was once dead, lay near the tree, in the center of the crater, to help the plausibility of the scene in front of the man who was quickly approaching. Blood was oozing from White Zetsu's "wounds". But it wasn't enough. The man that was approaching wouldn't be fooled. The hole that was under White Zetsu's heart was close to what a Chidori wound would look like, but it wasn't perfect. It wouldn't fool Kakashi Hatake, one of the Konoha's best Jonin, who possessed the Sharingan. Black Zetsu looked up above him and plucked a burning branch from the tree above, lowering it to White Zetsu. The fire would serve to conceal the imperfect Chidori wound. White Zetsu's death wouldn't matter. He was a clone. They could always make more clones. White Zetsu burned as the fire met his skin. Black Zetsu hefted the boy over his shoulder and turned to leave. He took one look at the boy, eyes looking toward his headband, emblazoned with the swirling leaf symbol of Konoha. He reached up, and with a swift motion, ripped off the headband, and threw it at White Zetsu's head. Not like the boy would need it anyway. Not where he was going.

With that Black Zetsu sank into the earth with Naruto Uzumaki, Konoha's number one knucklehead ninja, Hokage hopeful in tow.

* * *

><p>The silver haired jonin ran. He hadn't run this fast since he and Rin were running across the border of the Blood Mist in the Water Country. He didn't know if he was running faster now than he was then, but there was one thing he did know. The dread was the same. It was heavy. So heavy. It weighed on his shoulders as he ran. He had a horrible burning feeling in the pit of his stomach. Everything looked bad. The forest was eerily quiet. There was malevolence in the air. He'd been running for hours.<p>

_"Are you serious? You sent a team of genin running after Sasuke? When four jonin level ninja are serving as his escort?"_

_"I had to, Kakashi," Tsunade said. "I had to send them. You know that jonin level ninja are running thin after Orochimaru's attack. We've had to send the jonin out on missions constantly to make it look like we weren't vulnerable! We can't risk looking weak and have one of our enemies attack Konoha because of it!"_

_Kakashi turned from the Hokage's desk and walked to the door._

_"Where are you going?"_

_"Just taking a walk."_

_And he walked out the door._

_Tsunade stared at the door for a couple minutes. She reached for a bottle of liquor on her desk. She was about to pick it up, when the glass cracked. Tsunade stared. A bad omen._

_Kakashi immediately ran to the gate and summoned Pakkun, one of his ninja hounds, and asked him to track Naruto's scent while he waited at the gate. The wait was unbearable. A loud howl was heard, piercing the evening silence. He was just about to take off in the direction of the howl, when light footsteps made him pause. He stood there._

_"Don't worry, everything is gonna be ok. It's all gonna be alright, Sakura," he said without looking over his shoulder._

_And he was off._

He's been running for hours. The dread weighed on his shoulders. His heart. His soul. He ran. He ran and ran, praying that the feeling he had would not come true. And then he felt it. A feeling that he'd never want to feel. A malevolent chakra. The chakra of the Kyuubi. He looked up into the sky, praying for it to be a trick. A figment of imagination. He looked to the sky. And he stopped. For the first time in hours since setting off, he stopped. His right eye, the eye that wasn't covered by his slanted headband, widened. Red chakra shot up into the sky and dispersed into the night. There was no more dread. It left him. The weight that was on his shoulders, his mind, his heart, his soul, disappeared.

And in its place stood fear. _Terror._

"Kakashi…"

"I know, let's move Pakkun."

"Right."

And the pair ran. Kakashi had never run faster in his life than he had at that moment, not even with Rin. Rin. Obito. Minato. His mind brought back memories, memories that he wanted to never see again. Obito being crushed by a boulder on a mission. Blood. Rin jumping in front of a Chidori. Blood. Minato-sensei, the Yondaime Hokage, with a hole in his chest as a result of the fight with the Nine-Tails thirteen years ago. Blood. Blood everywhere. Kakashi began to panic.

_'Please. Not again. Not this time. Please don't happen again. Please let me be on time. Please.'_

He was running faster than he ever had before, leaping from tree to tree, his famed gravity defying silver hair a blur as her ran. But he felt slow. He felt like he wasn't making any kind of progress. Minutes seemed like hours. Then, finally, Kakashi and Pakkun arrived. Their eyes widened in horror. Fire was everywhere. Craters littered the ground at the site of the ferocious battle. But the worst was the body.

Kakashi's heart stopped in his throat. There, before him, lying in the dirt covered in flames, was Naruto Uzumaki. His body was torn up beyond belief. Gashes and lacerations littered the parts of his body that was visible through the flames. But the worst injury was the hole in his chest, under his heart. He had seen that injury before. He had given it countless times. A hole created by a Chidori. He lifted his headband so that his Sharingan eye looked at the scene before him. He had to be sure. He had to know, without a shadow of a doubt.

His fear was confirmed. The chakra signature was his.

Naruto Uzumaki was dead. Killed by a move Kakashi created. Killed by his best friend. Killed by his rival. Killed by someone he considered his brother.

Kakashi's head hung low.

_'Minato-sensei, Kushina-sama…Naruto…I'm sorry. I'm so sorry. I failed. Again.'_

He stood there as the body burned. And for the first time in years, Kakashi cried. He was trash. He couldn't stop his father from killing himself. He couldn't save Obito. Rin died by his hand. He failed to save his teacher, or his teacher's wife. He couldn't stop one of his students from betraying the village. He couldn't save another of his students from being killed by the traitor. His teacher's son was dead. Killed by a move Kakashi Hatake, the copy ninja, created himself. He was trash. He failed again. He was trash. The gravity of all of his regrets washed over him at once.

And he cried.

* * *

><p><em>"Naruto!"<em>

_"Sasuke!"_

_Naruto and Sasuke jumped towards each other, moving at speeds that the eye couldn't follow. But time seemed to slow down. Sasuke's body was changed due to the curse mark's highest form. Two hand-like wings sprouted from his back. His skin was a sickly brown color. What would normally be the whites of his eyes were dyed black, his Sharingan taking a mustard yellow color. The markings on his face were jet black, as were his lips. Maybe after all this was over, Naruto could joke that Sasuke looked like an emo little girl, but that would get saved for a later date._

_Naruto himself had some bodily changes two. What would normally be dazzling, bright blue eyes were blood red, pupils turned to slits. Red chakra surrounded his body, a tail forming at his back. His fingernails and canines elongated, like a fox. His whiskers were more defined. He radiated power._

_Sasuke formed a Chidori, which, through the guidance of the curse mark, was black. Naruto formed a swirling mass of chakra in his hand, the Rasengan, a jutsu invented by the Yondiame Hokage himself._

_They ran closer, extending their arms to guide their attacks. Naruto's reach was longer. The Rasengan would connect before the Chidori, and Sasuke would be blasted back. Naruto was going to win. All he had to do was stick this Rasengan into that asshole's gut. And thoughts flooded his mind._

_"Please, bring him back. Bring Sasuke-kun back to me! You're the only one who can do it!"_

_Words that stung his heart. The girl he loved was in love with someone else. That asshole made her cry. He took her smile away. Naruto hated to see her cry, it wasn't right. How could he make her smile? But he already knew the answer. He hated it with every fiber of his being, but there was nothing he could do. With a heavy heart, he responded._

_"Hey, don't worry Sakura-chan! It'll be alright! I can see how much you care about Sasuke. I'll bring him back! I promise! It's the promise of a lifetime! Believe it!"_

_He raised his hand, giving a thumbs up, and a goofy smile. A smile that always seemed to light the day of anyone that received it. But no one would ever know the pain behind those smiles. The loneliness. The anguish. He smiled on the outside, while his heart broke on the inside. The more the pain, the bigger the smile. But no one would ever know. She would never know._

_He couldn't do it. He couldn't connect. If the Rasengan hit, there was a chance that it could kill Sasuke. What would happen if he brought her a dead body? She would be sad. She would cry. He would have taken her smile. That smile that lit up his world every time he saw it. The smile that washed away all his pain and loneliness, sadness and anger. And he would be the cause. No. That was unacceptable. He would never cause her that kind of pain. The Rasengan dissipated in his hand. And the Chidori found its mark._

_'I'm sorry, Sakura-chan. At least this way you won't be sad.'_

Naruto became aware of his surroundings. His body was sore, his head throbbed, but he was alive. Memories of the fight haunted him. He opened his eyes. He noticed that he was hanging by his hands, suspended in air by chain cuffs on his wrists that attached to two wooden posts rising out of the ground.

_'What the hell is going on? Where am I? Where is Sasuke? What happened?'_

He heard a voice. He raised his head slightly so the owner wouldn't notice him.

"Do you want to tell me why you brought this boy here, Zetsu?" the voice echoed across the cavern. The voice was powerful, worthy of belonging to a man with extreme power himself. The echoes of the voice rumbled, seemingly shaking the cave with its strength. The cave was large. Pillars of stone rose from the floor to the ceiling, scattered across the cave. There was a massive statue at the back of the cave. The statue was grotesque, a disgusting figure to behold. Ten eyes littered its hideous face, all shut. It was a dull purple color. Its hands were twisted and gnarled, upturned in a position similar to a beggar asking for food. In front of the statue sat a simple chair. An old man with long white hair sat in the chair. Naruto couldn't see much of him, even though he was only a few feet in front of Naruto. Another figure was standing in-between Naruto and the old man. His head was surrounded by some weird plant looking thing, it looked stupid to Naruto.

_'What a weird fashion statement,'_ he thought. And then he froze. His blood chilled. He felt cold. Naruto had just noticed the man's robes. They were black, adorned with red clouds. '_Akatsuki!? They've got me? When?_' He started to panic.

"I think he would make a great pawn," the man called Zetsu answered.

"Oh? And what makes you say that? Show me."

Zetsu stepped forward and kneeled, looking the old man in the eye.

"Tsukuyomi."

Naruto watched, with widened eyes. _'That man…that's a Sharingan! It's weird though, I've never seen one like that…'_

In the brief glimpse he caught of the old man's Sharingan, he saw a strange pattern, unlike the normal Sharingan pattern. This pattern resembled a rounded triangle, with circles at the apex of each point. Three black lines ran from the middle of each leg of the triangle to the outside of the Sharingan.

_'Wait! How did he have a Sharingan? Sasuke and Itachi are the only living Uchiha! And that name..'Tsukuyomi'…isn't that what put Kakashi-sensei in the hospital for a week? That was done by a Mangekyo Sharingan, so does this guy have a Mangekyo as well?'_

Zetsu stirred and stood up.

"That was an interesting battle you witnessed, Zetsu. So, this child is an Uzumaki, is he? I haven't had much fun since he left, I was beginning to get bored. I guess I could teach this child how to dance. He will make an excellent pawn. It's a shame he doesn't have the Kyuubi anymore. He retained the healing abilities, though. He will make a formidable ninja, with the right push. You've done well in bringing him to me, Zetsu."

"Thank you….Madara."

Naruto shivered at the name. He recognized that name. _'Where have I heard that name before? And what the hell are they talking about, making me a pawn? What the hell is going on? What did he mean about me not having the Kyuubi?'_

Naruto felt pain as he thought, his head hurt terribly. The pain was becoming too much. Amidst the pain, he felt a pull. A slight tug at his mind. It was gentle, friendly even, so he submitted to it. As he receded into the darkness he heard Madara speak.

"We will begin as soon as he wakes."

And then all was black.

_Naruto was falling. Falling down into the blackness. But it was familiar. This darkness was familiar. Had he felt this before?_

_He woke with a start._

_'Where am I?'_

_He recognized the place he was in, but only just barely. He had been here before, but he couldn't remember when. He lay in a long corridor, flooded by water. The walls of the corridor reminded him of the sewers under Konoha. He had been thrown down there a couple times as a kid as punishment. For what he didn't know, and he never found out. The walls of the corridor were bathed in an eerie bronze light. The light was dim, and the upper portion of the walls were dark as a result. He noticed, despite the darkness, pipes that ran across the ceiling. And then he heard a rumble from further down the corridor. No, not rumbling. Growling._

_And then he remembered. He knew this place. He hated this place. He had been here once before, when Jiraiya was teaching him how to us the summoning jutsu. Ero-sennin had thrown him off of a cliff, into what seemed like a bottomless trench. He had panicked, looking for chakra to be able to summon a toad that would help him out of that predicament. And he had ended up here. In this same place._

_'What the hell? Why am I here? Those people that were talking earlier were saying something about me not being the host anymore. So why is there this growling?'_

_He walked further. He walked for what felt like miles until he could see a faint light at the end of the corridor. And then he heard a roar._

_"YOU! WHAT THE HELL ARE YOU DOING HERE?"_

_Naruto sprinted until he reached the end of the corridor, which spilled out into a large room. Standing in the back of the room was a large gate-like structure, behind which stood a massive, crimson colored fox. In the middle of a gate, there was a tag with the word "seal" written on it. The fox's eyes were crimson, filled with anger and hate, and its tails were swinging wildly behind it. There were nine of them. This was the most powerful of the Bijuu, the Kyuubi no Kitsune._

_"Hey, stupid fox! What the hell is going on? The people outside said I didn't have you anymore, what did you do? Wha-" Naruto stopped abruptly. Having rushed into the massive chamber and being awed by the impressive sight that was the fox, he had failed to notice the figure standing just outside the cage, with his back toward Naruto._

_'No way. It can't be…'_

_The man wore a white cloak, the bottom of which was embroidered by orange colored flames. Above the flames were the kanji of two words. "Yondaime Hokage". The cloak had a high collar, extending to just below the man's ears. A slight movement later, a simple turn of the head, and he saw a flash of blue from just above the collar of the cloak._

_He turned, and Naruto froze. The man had blonde hair and blue eyes. On his head he wore a headband, and carved on the steel plate attached to the headband, was the swirling symbol of Konoha. Beneath his cloak, he wore a standard dark green jonin vest, a blue long sleeve shirt underneath the vest, and blue pants, and the standard blue ninja sandals on his feet. There were two bands on each arm, one close to the wrist, and another just under the elbow to keep the sleeves of his shirt from slipping. He knew this man. He had seen this man's many times before, committed it to memory. A simple task, seeing as how it was carved into the mountainside behind Konoha.._

_"You're…the Yondaime…" he breathed._

_The Yondaime Hokage smiled. A smile that washed over Naruto and eased all of his nerves. It radiated peace, and calm. All of his pain seemed to float away as he looked at the man before him, the Yondaime Hokage, Minato Namikaze._

_"Hi there…Naruto..."_

_"You know my name? How is it you know my name?"_

_Minato looked at Naruto, deep in thought. "It's only natural that the father know the name of his son, right?"_

_"S-son?"_

_"That's right, Naruto, I'm you-" Minato stopped as a ball of chakra slammed into his gut, sending him flying backwards, skidding across the water at that covered the ground, coming to a stop just before the gate. The Yondaime Hokage looked up, stunned. He hesitated, and it almost cost him another blow. Naruto was sprinting at him, Rasengan in hand, ready to drive it into Minato again. He jumped to his feet and out of the way, narrowly avoiding the Rasengan. He hadn't time to do anything after escaping, as he was immediately surrounded by four Naruto's. They punched and kicked, desperately trying to hit, break, maim the Yondaime Hokage. Two of them backed off and launched kunai at Minato, who dodged them easily. He stuck at one of the Naruto's and watched as it poofed away into smoke. 'Shadow clones, huh? That's pretty good for his age. But to think he mastered the Rasengan…it took me three years to do that…'He quickly dispatched the other three clones, and watched as the real Naruto jumped through the smoke, aiming a punch right at Minato's face. Minato would have stopped it, but then he looked past the fist. And saw the tears. The anguish. The sadness. The loneliness. The anger. In his son's eyes. 'In my eyes…' Minato let the punch connect. It hit him in the jaw and sent him flying into the bars of the cage, where he stayed. He looked up at his son, mere feet away, and felt sorrow. He passed down his own eyes to his son, and saw nothing but sadness in them. What a failure he was. As a man. As a husband. As a father._

_"WHAT THE HELL IS YOUR PROBLEM? DO YOU KNOW WHAT YOU DID TO ME?"_

_Minato stared. He stared at his son. Tears flowed down his face in droves. Minato would take this. He would take his sons anger. It was the least he could do. His actions all those years ago cause all of Naruto's pain. As a father, the only thing he ever gave Naruto was pain. He would take this._

_"ANSWER ME!"_

_He knew. He had hoped it would not be, but he knew. He had hoped that the villagers would be able to see past their hatred and recognize Naruto as a hero for the burden he carried. He was naïve. And it hurt his son. So much so._

_"DO YOU KNOW WHAT I'VE BEEN THROUGH BECAUSE OF YOU? DO YOU KNOW ABOUT THE PAIN I'VE SUFFERED BECAUSE OF WHAT YOU SEALED INSIDE ME?"_

_Minato felt nothing but sadness. He knew Naruto would not listen, but he had to try. "I'm sorry."_

_"YOU'RE SORRY? WHAT ARE YOU SORRY FOR? FOR ABANDONING ME? FOR LEAVING ME WITH PEOPLE THAT HATED ME? DO YOU REALIZE WHAT THE VILLAGERS DID TO ME? DO YOU FEEL SORRY FOR ALL THE BEATINGS THEY GAVE ME? ARE YOU SORRY THAT WHEN I WENT TO THE HOSPITAL WITH BROKEN BONES AND TORN MUSCLES AFTER BEING BEATEN BY THE VILLAGERS, THE DOCTORS JUST TURNED ME AWAY, BECAUSE 'THEY HAD PAPERWORK TO FILE'? ARE YOU SORRY THAT I WAS DIRT POOR AND STARVING BECAUSE THE VILLAGERS WOULD OVERCHARGE ME FOR THINGS LIKE FOOD, AND STILL GAVE ME ROTTEN THINGS TO EAT WHEN I HAD TO PAY DOUBLE WHAT NORMAL CITIZENS GOT? ARE YOU SORRY FOR ALL THE TIMES MY APARTMENT GOT BROKEN INTO AND ALL OF MY THINGS DESTROYED? ARE YOU SORRY THAT BECAUSE OF YOU, I COULD NEVER MAKE FRIENDS? THAT I WAS AVOIDED LIKE SOME KIND OF DISEASE RIDDEN ANIMAL? THAT I WAS ALONE?"_

_Naruto was in tears. Minato's son was crying, and it was his fault. He had faced so much, at so young an age, and Minato felt nothing but guilt for it. A single tear slipped down Minato's face. "Yes…" he said._

_"Don't you dare cry! You haven't earned the right to cry!"_

_"I'm sorry…"_

_Silence. Painful silence. All three attendants were deep in thought. Naruto in anger, Minato in grief, and the Kyuubi…in disbelief. He thought the brat would be jumping for joy with the knowledge that he finally found his long lost father. Even more so when he found out that his father was the Yondaime Hokage. He had never expected the boy to be enraged. Much less try to beat Minato like a drum._

_"This brat has balls…' he thought to himself. 'I think I'll just watch for a little bit.'_

_"Why are you here? What's going on? Those people that were outside said that I lost the Kyuubi, so why is he here?"_

_Minato looked at his son. Naruto looked so much like himself, there was no doubt that he would grow up to be a carbon copy of Minato, with whiskers of course…but his face was slightly rounder. Like Kushina's. "They are….misinformed…"_

_"…eh?"_

_Minato smiled slightly, the previous outburst still on his mind. 'Just like Kushina' he thought. "They think that you lost the Kyuubi because of me."_

_"What are you talking about? How is it that you're here, anyway?"_

_Minato sighed. This was going to be interesting, trying to explain everything. "When I sealed the Kyuubi in you after you were born, I put in some of my own chakra into the seal. I did this so that one day, in case the Kyuubi were to break the seal, I would show up and be able to help you close the seal."_

_"Ummmm. Ok. So did the fur ball break the seal? Is that why you're here?"_

_"Hey brat, who the hell do you think you're calling a fur ball?" the Kyuubi shouted._

_"I'm calling you a fur ball, you fur ball! You're in my body, I can call you whatever the hell I want to!" Naruto shouted back._

_The Kyuubi let out a massive roar. "Who the hell do you think you are, getting so familiar with me? Call me a fur ball one more time, and I'll kick your ass and eat you for breakfast!"_

_Minato sighed while Naruto shouted something back. He was a lot like Kushina. It made him smile. Minato stood up. The motion caused Naruto and the fox to stop bickering._

_'I hate brats.' The Kyuubi thought to himself. 'Especially this brat.'_

_"No, Naruto, the Kyuubi didn't break free. There was a change in plans."_

_"Change in plans?"_

_"Yeah. During your fight with your friend," Naruto cringed, Minato saw but continued on "there was a…presence near you. It was…not a good presence. It watched the fight until it was over, then began to approach you. I gathered up some of my chakra that I have left here and cast a genjutsu to make it look like the Kyuubi chakra was leaking out of you and dispersing elsewhere. It was a powerful genjutsu. Anyone within 10 miles of you would have been affected by it. I used some of the Kyuubi chakra in the genjutsu to make it feel like the Kyuubi. You were dying, so in order to keep the actual Kyuubi within you, I turned some of my chakra into electricity, and used it to restart your heart."_

_"Sounds complicated. So you can turn your chakra into electricity? How?"_

_Minato smiled. "It's because one of my chakra natures is Lightning."_

_"Eh? Chakra natures? What's that?"_

_"…You don't know?"_

_"Ummmmm…nope!"_

_"Damn academy…" Minato sighed. "There are 5 basic chakra natures. Earth, Water, Wind, Fire, and Lightning. These natures can produce certain types of jutsu. Earth creates Doton jutsu, Water creates Suiton, and so on. Most ninja have one of these chakra natures. It means that they can use jutsu relating to the nature of their chakra. More experienced ninja develop can develop more than one of these chakra natures. I'm able to use all 5 of the chakra natures, which is extremely rare. From the feel of it, your chakra is like mine. You might be able to use all 5 as well, later on."_

_"Ehh! Really! All right! I don't really understand, but it sounded pretty cool! It means I'm gonna be a pretty awesome ninja, doesn't it?" Naruto said, beaming. Minato smiled. The mood swings. Definitely like Kushina._

_"Yeah…but it looks like you're going to have a really hard time."_

_"Huh? Why?"_

_"Did you hear the two outside? One of them was called Madara. As in Madara Uchiha. One of the founders of the Konoha. He left the village though, and tried to destroy it a couple times, every time he was stopped by the Shodaime Hokage, Hashirama Senju. During their final battle, Hashirama supposedly killed Madara. Apparently, that wasn't the case. Which is why I summoned you here."_

_"Huh? What are you talking about?"_

_"From the way they were talking, it looks like they want to keep you here. Madara possesses the Sharingan. If he were to look into your mind, he would see the Kyuubi. The only reason he hasn't bothered to look is because the one called Zetsu fell for the genjutsu."_

_"So what do we do?"_

_"…I'm going to ask you something Naruto. Something that is really difficult."_

_"Huh? What?"_

_"First thing first…Do you have people that you love back home? People that you want to protect with everything you have?"_

_"Um…Yeah. It wasn't like that at first, because, well you know…" he said, and Minato grimaced. "But now there's a lot of people that I want to protect. There's Sakura-chan, Tsunade baa-chan, Ero-sennin, Kakashi-sensei, all my friends…Why?"_

_"Naruto…I'm…going to be blunt. I don't think they're going to let you leave here. It's clear though that Madara is the head of the Akatsuki, judging by their conversation earlier. They mentioned using you as a pawn, which makes me think that they are going to train you, and turn you against the world. Against Konoha. Against your friends…"_

_Naruto understood. He wasn't the smartest, but he knew where this was going, and his mind was made up. "You want me to let them use me, don't you? I probably won't be able to get out of here, so you want me to follow them…"_

_"Whatever Madara is planning, it won't be good. Not when it's him. But like I said, he has the Sharingan. You'll be in danger if he uses it and sees the Kyuubi."_

_"So what do you want to do about that?"_

_"I'm…going to seal your mind away, in a place where he can't reach it. In that necklace you have."_

_"Seal my mind? You can do that? In the necklace?"_

_"Yeah. The necklace you have used to belong to the Shodaime Hokage. That genjutsu I created also hid the necklace. I didn't know why, but I had the urge to conceal that as well. When I heard Madara's name, I knew I would have to seal your mind, but I was originally going to create a pocket in the back of your mind and store your mind in that pocket. But for some reason, I feel like the necklace is an even better option. I know for certain that your mind will be safe there. When I seal your mind, you won't remember anything except your name. He won't be able to use anything from your past against you. None of your friends. Nothing. You'll be a blank canvas. This will help protect you from going insane if he uses that Sharingan on you too much, if he…tortures you. The seal will also mask Kyuubi's chakra, so if you get injured and begin to heal, neither Madara nor anyone else will notice that it is the Kyuubi's chakra healing you. It will also make this space inaccessible to anyone until such a time that the seal is broken. Since he said that they plan on using you, then it's safe to assume that they'll let you out of here at some point. Probably when they deem you strong enough. So, included with the seal, I'll make it so you have the desire to head to Uzushiogakure when you're free from this place. You'll be safe there, it's been abandoned for a long time. Once there, the seal will break, and the part of your mind that was sealed will be restored. It will probably hurt, and could drive you insane, but I know you'll be fine."_

_"What do I do after that?"_

_"…protect your own."_

_And Naruto smiled. He knew what to do. "I'll do it. But I've got one question. If I forget everything, doesn't that include what I believe in? Won't it be easier for Madara to twist me, since I won't know what it is I believe?"_

_"Is there anything that you can think of that you hold so dear to you, that you would never waver from? That drives you? That breathes life into you? Something that you would never want to let down?"_

_"Yeah…I've got something like that…" Naruto said, smiling softly._

_"Ok. Then let's use that. Every time you are about to act in a way that isn't in line with who you really are, the seal will conjure up the image of what you want to see, and you'll instinctively know not to follow through. You might have to come up with some excuses, but with your minds altered state, that should be easy to do. The image will also soothe you in times of pain, and encourage you to press forward. You won't know why, but you will follow it like a guide. So…What is it you that you want to see?"_

_Naruto told him._

_Minato smiled. "I see…"_

_Minato started to perform hand seals at a dazzling speed. At the conclusion of the seals, he bit his thumb, drawing blood, and drew two concentric circles on Naruto's forehead, with a horizontal line through the middle. "Naruto…"_

_"Yeah?"_

_"…I'm sorry. I've put you through so much pain already, and now I'm asking you to do this…I couldn't ask anyone else to use their child for the sealing of the Kyuubi so I had to use my own son, and I can't ask anyone else to take your place this time…"_

_"…It sounds like you did the best you could. I'm glad I got to meet you. Even if it was like this. To be honest, I'm not really sure how I should feel…I just…I don't really understand how I feel..."_

_Minato watched his son struggle to come up with the words to say. "It's alright. It's a lot for you to think about. One day, when you can, when you're older, you'll be able to look at what happened, and if you decide that you hate me for it…if you decide you can't forgive me…" Tears welled up in Minato's eyes, making them shine in the dim light. "…Naruto, no matter what happens…no matter the outcome…I will always love you. I won't be able to see you again, I don't think. This seal will use up the last of my chakra…"_

_ "…My dad was a pretty awesome ninja, huh?"_

_'An awesome ninja, huh?' Minato smiled softly. "…I know you can feel her…she'll be waiting for you, so when you see her, tell your mom I said hi, ok?"_

_"Yeah..."_

_Minato took one last look at his son, a tear rolled down his cheek, and placed his palm over Naruto's forehead._

"Oh, look…he's waking up." Zetsu said.

"Good. Now it's time to get started. Raise his head."

A cold, clammy hand gripped Naruto's chin, and he found himself looking at an old man, with white hair, and blood red Sharingan eyes. He didn't know why, he had no memory, but he felt determined to defy this man. At all costs.

The pain hit before he knew what happened. His head felt like it was splitting in half. It was pure agony. And he knew he was in hell.

He was in hell. He saw a pair of eyes. Emerald eyes. And he smiled. He was in hell, but he would endure. He would rise.


	2. Chapter 2

Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto. Any recognizable characters, locations, and concepts are property of Masashi Kishimoto. There may be times in the story that scenes from the anime Naruto appear in this story, such scenes belong to Kishimoto and those at VIZ media. No copyright infringement is intended, I am just doing this for fun.

Hey guys! I'm back with another chapter! First off, I wanted to say thanks to everyone that reviewed the first chapter (Deus Namikaze, sortofbored, ahmadaziz, XxAshishxX, edochan68, LordCanine, RedCrownActual, YellowFlash85, thor94, SawDawg10, CursedSage95, Okiro Benihime, Rakasa, and Senseye318, as well as the guest and anonymous reviewers as well!).I decided that I'd probably just send you PM's with responses to your reviews, I felt that it would kinda make it more personal, and then it would be less bulky during the next chapter, as I wouldn't have to write responses to the reviews. To those that didn't get a PM, I tried, but for some reason I didn't see the PM option on your profile? I'm not really sure what that's about, but I didn't forget about you!

Also, thanks to the people that followed and fav'd the story, I hope it lives up to your expectations!

Chapter 2

It's hard to tell time when you're stuck inside of a cave. A normal person could do it. An experienced person could do it. A ninja could damn sure do it. But those were statements that only held under the most normal of circumstances. Not everybody got constantly trapped in a genjutsu that manipulated time so efficiently that months spent in the genjutsu were only a couple of seconds in real time. Not everybody was tortured almost every moment of their lives, either in the genjutsu or not. It was only due to Zetsu telling him how many days, months, years had passed since he had been brought to that cave.

Madara was ruthless. Ever since Naruto had woken and found himself in that unfamiliar cave, Madara had tortured him relentlessly. Madara stated that it was a form of training. Naruto wasn't sure why, but he knew better. Something told him, gave him this feeling, that Madara's words were nothing more than eloquent lies. The second Naruto had opened his eyes that first day, he was trapped in the Tsukuyomi. A younger, black hair version of Madara explained things about the cycle of hatred, how men that learned to love also risked learning to hate. He said that he was going to create a new world, a world free of pain and hate. Where everybody was equal. Where dreams come true. It sounded nice. Too nice. Naruto wanted to believe it, but there was always that feeling that Madara was a liar, like he cared nothing for the people in the world, other than himself. He reeked of a man that knew and wanted nothing but power. And then the torture began.

Naruto was subjected to everything imaginable inside the Tsukuyomi. He would be tied to posts while and sliced and impaled repeatedly with swords, whipped for hours on end until rivers of blood flowed down his body, set on fire until his skin was covered in grotesque burns, beaten with metal pipes until bone fragments flew out of his broken skin, anything that crossed Madara's demented imagination was fair game. After Madara had his fill, usually after months of torture inside the Tsukuyomi (mere seconds in real time), he would release Naruto to begin training his body with physical exercises and taijutsu. He was made to run laps around the cave. If he didn't run fast enough, he was punished. If he tripped, he was punished. If was breathing too hard at the end of the run, he was punished. He was made to do pushups, sit-ups, squats, and all other kinds of exercises for hours on end. If he didn't do them fast enough he was punished. If he couldn't complete the allotted amount he was punished. If he got tired before was done, he was punished. If, at any time, he expressed noises of pain, he was punished. He tried not to voice his pain, but sometimes it was unavoidable. If he expressed noises of pain, or even acknowledge pain existed while he was punished, he was punished even more. Once the physical training was over, it was right back into the genjutsu to be tortured. Rest was nothing more than a hopeful wish. The times he did sleep felt too short, before the cycle was repeated. Madara was thorough. But he always recovered. Madara stated that he had a remarkable healing ability which allowed him to recover from almost any type of wound. It was one of the few things that Naruto felt Madara _hadn't_ lied about.

After his physical strength met Madara's standards, Madara began to train him in ninjutsu. Madara tested Naruto's chakra with the chakra paper. When chakra was flooded into the paper, the paper would then have a reaction based on the type of nature the chakra possessed. If the nature of the chakra was fire, the paper would burn away. If it was water, the paper would get soggy. If it was wind, the paper would spit in two. Earth, and the paper would crumble to dust, and if it was Lightning, the paper would crinkle up. When Naruto touched the paper, he noticed his chakra acted strangely. Instead of pouring into the paper uninhibited, it felt like his chakra split into five parts, and only one of those parts touched the paper. Once that happened, and his chakra met the paper, the paper burst into flames. Naruto would never forget Madara's smile. It was a sadistic smile. It turns out that Madara, as an Uchiha, was very well versed with Katon. Because of the physical "training" Naruto went through, Naruto's chakra reserves had already increased exponentially, which would aid Naruto when using higher level Katon jutsu that Madara would be able to teach him.

Madara had even higher demands for Katon training than he did for the physical training. Madara demanded that Naruto have precise chakra control, which he could monitor due to his Sharingan, but due to Naruto's incredibly vast chakra reserves, control was a struggle. Madara delighted in Naruto's pain, but never more than when he applied the Amaterasu, a technique exclusive to the Mangekyo Sharingan in which the user summons black flames that can never be put out (except by those with considerable prowess like Madara), to each one of Naruto's limbs and watched as the black flames from Hell cooked Naruto alive. Madara told him that normally, the Mangekyo Sharingan had a limit on its life. The more you used the Mangekyo Sharingan, the faster the Mangekyo would degrade the users' eyes, before finally disappearing forever and leaving the user blind. However, Madara had the Eternal Mangekyo Sharingan, a form of Sharingan even higher than the Mangekyo Sharingan, since it would never lose its light, meaning, as Madara had said after explaining it to Naruto, that he would be able to light Naruto on fire with the Amaterasu as much as he wanted. The sadistic smile on his face and the glint in his eyes said he would enjoy every second of it as well.

At times the pain was unbearable. On more than one occasion, Naruto had wanted nothing more than to die. To give up. His life was meaningless. He didn't know anything of his history, where he was from, family or friends he might have had, save for his name. His future consisted of torture, torture, and more torture. He knew nothing but pain. And blood. And suffering. How he wished to die. Nobody would miss him. There were times he found himself praying for Madara to kill him. For Naruto's healing ability to stop working. For Madara to forget to put out the Amaterasu. For Madara to whip him once more, when he knew that the next strike would slice through his heavily damage body and cut him clean in half. But he never did. He always drove Naruto to the brink, and then stopped, only to let him heal and repeat the process. He wished for death.

However, for some reason, what he got wasn't death, but comfort. At first he thought it was a trick of the light, so he blinked once, but it was still there. Then he thought it was a hallucination, a reasonable assumption in his mind, due to the constant torture. But the "hallucination" was persistent and didn't just present itself to him during times of torture. Sometimes, when he would be preparing to go to sleep, afraid for what the next day would bring, it would weasel its way into his head. After a while, he noticed a pattern. The image would present itself whenever he had thoughts of giving up, or death. When the pain was at its height. The image soothed him. Comforted him. Encouraged him to move on. Gave him…hope. Made him feel like everything was going to be ok. And then, he had remembered. The image had shown itself that very first night he woke up in the cave. He wondered if he would ever see them again. That pair of beautiful emerald eyes…

And finally, Madara had determined he was fit to fulfill his mission. Madara told him of an organization, the Akatsuki, which was gathering the nine Bijuu that were sealed in Jinchuriki, human containers for the beasts, that lived in various parts of the world. Madara then informed him of all the members of the Akatsuki. He gave Naruto descriptions of faces and names to match. He described the Bijuu as massive entities of chakra, given both form and self-awareness, each having a distinct appearance and a different number of tails. The tails signified the strength of the beast. The higher the number, the stronger the Bijuu. The Kyuubi, he said, was the strongest. His mission was to join the Akatsuki, and help them to gather the Jinchuriki, and extract the Bijuu from them. He wasn't told what for, but just hearing his assignment made his skin crawl. The emerald eyes appeared when Madara had finished telling him of his role, and Naruto knew that this plan was not to be allowed to come to fruition.

After telling Naruto his role, Madara died. His last words were that they would meet again, sometime in the near future. As he died, his eyes changed from a blood red sharingan, Mangekyo Sharingan, to the Eternal Mangekyo Sharingan, to a new pair of eyes, completely colored purple, with concentric circles surrounding the pupils. And, one last time, his eyes closed.

Naruto walked out of the cave and into a dark tunnel, Zetsu close behind. The tunnel was long, Naruto had walked for an hour before finally, for the first time in three and a half years, Naruto stepped out into the night, into a forest of trees.

The night was clear, the pale moon full and high in the sky, casting its light over everything in the vicinity unhindered. It washed over Naruto, who merely looked at the moon, staring as if he had rejoined a lost friend.

He was tall. Much taller than he'd been since he first woke up in the cave. He stood at over six feet tall, his body lean and corded with muscle, visible due to his lack of a shirt. Golden spiked hair flowed down his head, framing his face perfectly, stopping at his chin. His face was thin, his jaw strong. On each cheek rested three whisker-like marks. His most striking feature, however, were his sapphire eyes that seemed to twinkle in the moonlight. He wore black pants and black ninja sandals.

"Here, put this on." Zetsu said, handing him a hooded cloak. Naruto slipped on the cloak and raised the hood, effectively hiding his face. The pair continued to walk until they left the forest, and came to a large hill overlooking the grassy fields below him. "Wait here, I'll go get him."

Zetsu left, leaving Naruto to his thoughts. Naruto sat down on the grass of the hill, staring up at the moon. He sat, and as he sat, he noticed a pull somewhere in the back of his mind, pulling his attention to the north-east. The pull seemed to want him to go in that direction, and Naruto decided that he would. But only after he dealt with his company.

"Do you want to tell me how that jutsu works?" Naruto asked, seemingly to nobody.

"And why would I do that?" A cool voice answered back from behind Naruto, a spot that was previously unoccupied a few seconds prior.

"So that if you ever cross me, I can kill you easier."

"I think I'll pass. It would take much more skill than you have to be able to kill me, Naruto Uzumaki, even with Madara's…'training'."

Naruto looked over his shoulder. He saw Zetsu standing next to a figure of middling height, a couple inches shorter than Naruto. He wore a cloak embroidered with the red clouds of the Akatsuki. Black pants and standard black ninja sandals could be seen at the bottom of the cloak. The man's face was covered by an orange mask, which seemed to spiral out from the lone hole in the mask over the man's right eye. In his hands he held an Akatsuki cloak and a ring. He threw them at Naruto.

"Take these. The ring is something all members of the Akatsuki have, it allows Pain to be able to contact members to brief them on assignments. In the event of the capture of one of the Bijuu, Pain will contact all the members of the Akatsuki, and will begin the sealing ritual of the Bijuu. The sealing process takes roughly three days, so once contacted, find a secluded spot close to your location and make yourself comfortable."

"We don't have to be physically present for the sealing?" Naruto questioned.

"No. The jutsu used to contact members of the Akatsuki also allows for projections of the members to be present during the sealing. It's a simple task to supply the necessary amount of chakra from there."

"Fine. I'll be off then." Naruto said, standing.

"Where are you headed?" White Zetsu asked in his musical voice. Naruto hated that voice. It annoyed him to no end. The first few days in the cave, Black Zetsu had been alone, before producing a White Zetsu from the statue in the cave. Naruto remembered very clearly the disgusting squelching noise the pair made as they merged into one being. Why in god's name someone would willingly create something as stupid as White Zetsu was beyond Naruto, but he couldn't even begin to fathom why anyone would want to be stuck to one of those things.

"None of your damn business. By the way, what am I supposed to call you?" Naruto asked, glancing at the man in the mask.

"You can call me Tobi around the Akatsuki. The one who leads the Akatuski in my stead, Pain, as well as Konan, Itachi, and Kisame know me as Madara. Around them, feel free to address me as such, but do not tell them about the real Madara. Let's go Zetsu. See you soon…Naruto."

Naruto watched on as Tobi and Zetsu disappeared in a swirl of motion centered on the hole in Tobi's mask. And just like that, they were gone.

Naruto turned and sped down the hill, heading north-east towards the pull in his mind, cloak and ring in hand.

_'That jutsu…could be formidable if I have to go against it.'_ he thought.

Naruto noticed that the further he went north-east, the stronger the pull got. After a while he came to a small town. As he sped through the streets, he noticed that there was a shop for ninja. It made sense to find one here, this town wasn't near anything as far as Naruto could tell, it was the first thing he reached after nearly an hour of running. The town probably operated as a place for ninja to resupply on food and tools while on missions. Naruto kept the small town in his mind and sped onward.

Naruto ran for hours. Finally, as the full moon began to touch the horizon, Naruto climbed a hill and saw the ruins of a village in the distance, surrounded by grassy plains, and farther off in the distance, the ocean. The village was small, not more than a couple hundred yards wide. It might have been larger in the past, but it was hard to tell, the further Naruto looked from the center of the village, the more desolate the ruins became. Buildings lay broken everywhere, reduced to piles of rubble. Naruto noticed one building in the center of the ruins that seemed in better shape than most of the other buildings. It had damage, there looked to be several large holes in it, but it was still standing. Naruto supposed he should start with that building. He wasn't sure what he was looking for, or even if he should be looking for anything in the first place, but the pull on his mind was strong now, and began to pulse. He knew that the ruins were where he was supposed be. He wasn't sure why, but he was supposed to be here. A flash of emerald eyes in front of him reassured him, coaxing him to move forward. He descended the hill.

A couple minutes later, he entered the ruins. The road he walked on, if you could call it a road, was covered in the rubble of the broken buildings surrounding it. The crumbling stone buildings were covered in vines, showing that the village had been in this condition for quite some times. The road winded as Naruto walked. Occasionally, among the dull colors inside the buildings, Naruto could make out a small red circle with a swirl that started from the center of the circle and ran outwards painted on some of the walls. That was about the only color left in the village, it seemed.

Naruto walked on, finally coming to the only building that was, for the most part, intact. The building was two stories tall and had a couple of windows three on the first floor, one close to the roof on the second floor. All were broken. Naruto walked up to the door and pushed, earning a creak as the door slowly opened. The pull in his head started pounding, and pounded even harder as he stepped into the building. He took one step and the pounding increased. He was beginning to get lightheaded. He looked around and saw a long stone table in the middle of the room with a couple chairs surrounding it, the only things that occupied the place that wasn't broken. There was a fireplace off to the left of the table. Portraits were dangling awkwardly from the walls, the paint so faded nothing could be made out of the original work. Broken glass from the windows, as well as some other unknown objects littered the floor. Behind the table were two doors. The one on the left was open revealing a staircase leading to the upper level of the building. As Naruto walked around the table to the doors, the pull in his head directed him to the right one. He opened the door to find a stone staircase descending to whatever lay below. He took a step into the darkness, then another. The pounding in his head was beginning to hurt. Placing a hand on the wall for support, he took a third step and the door slammed shut. Naruto started to panic, but the pull moved him forward, down the stairs. Eventually, the stairs evened out, and Naruto's hand came to the end of the wall. He took another step, and light flashed. Naruto blinked, waiting for his eyes to adjust to the sudden light.

When his eyes began to tolerate the light, he started to look around. He was standing at the entrance of a large rectangular room, torches adorned the walls, burning brightly with fire. Three of the four walls in the room were bare. The fourth wall, directly across from Naruto and the staircase behind him, had a large red circle with a swirl in the middle. Surrounding the circular pattern on either side were rows of demonic looking masks, each with different facial expressions. A larger version of the same symbol found on the wall was covering a large portion of the floor. The pull in his head directed his attention to the middle of the swirl on the floor. He took a step into middle of the circle at the center of the swirl and the pounding suddenly stopped, granting Naruto a second of relief.

And then he felt pain. Mind numbing pain. It felt like his head was splitting in half. He screamed louder than he ever did during Madara's torture. His hands shot up to grip his head as he fell down to his knees. And then he saw black.

_Memories from a lost life flooded his mind. _

_He saw villagers glaring at him, beating him, spitting on him, telling him that he should just die. Over and over again. He remembered going to the hospital after beatings with cuts and bruises and broken bones, only to get turned away by doctors that said they had paperwork to do. He walked into stores only to pay double for rotten food, and if he complained, he would get thrown out of the stores, only to get beaten some more. He remembered the pain, the sadness, the lonely nights out on the playground, watching as parents came to pick up their children, who ignored him because their parents had told them to. He remembered being teased by the kids at the academy because he had no parents and nobody wanted him. He remembered getting thrown out of classes at the academy before teachers were to give demonstrations of jutsu or important lessons, only to be allowed back in after the demonstrations or lessons were over. He remembered crying himself to sleep most nights because nobody liked him. He remembered each and every day, each and every beating, each and every curse, everything. _

_He remembered the night he graduated the academy, witnessing as Iruka jumped in front of a large shurikan meant for Naruto. Naruto listened as Iruka defended him from the rogue ninja Mizuki. "Yeah… the monster fox would do that… but Naruto is different. I've acknowledged him as… one of my excellent students. He may not be the hardest worker… and he is clumsy and no one accepts him… but he already knows what it is to feel pain inside your heart. He isn't the monster fox. He is a member of the Konohagakure. He's Naruto Uzumaki!"_

_He remembered being picked for Team 7 with Sakura-chan and that asshole Sasuke. He remembered being tied to the stump and Sakura-chan feeding him, and Kakashi-sensei passing them, saying that the bell test was a test of team work. "In the ninja world, those who break the rules are trash, that's true, but those who abandon their comrades are worse than trash."_

_He remembered Team 7's first big time mission in the Nami no Kuni, meeting Zabuza and Haku. He remembered Haku dying for Zabuza at the hands of Kakashi-sensei, and then Zabuza dying at the hands of Gato's men to protect Haku's honor. He remembered Haku's words from before their fight on the bridge. "When a person… has something important they want to protect… that's when they can become truly strong."_

_He remembered the Chuunin Exams, and Sasuke's words to him before the preliminary round. "You're one of the ones that I want to fight the most."_

_He remembered training with Ero-Sennin, Jiraiya, learning to walk on water and then summon toads. It took him forever to summon even a simple tadpole. He remembered getting thrown into a ravine by that damn pervert, meeting the Kyuubi, and finally summoning the chief toad, Gamabunta. He had to fight to stay on top of the giant toad to make the toad acknowledge him._

_He remembered Sakura cheering for him during the exams when he fought Neji. He remembered fighting for her life against Gaara, going all out so she would be safe. _

_He remembered the Sandiame Hokage's funeral after his death at the hands of Orochimaru, and leaving with Ero-sennin to look for some old hag. During the trip he met Itachi Uchiha for the first time. Itachi, and some shark man named Kisame had been looking for him. Sasuke had showed up, and got his ass whipped by Itachi. Ero-sennin managed to drive the two off, Sasuke was left in a coma. Apparently the old hag was a legendary medical ninja, hopefully she would be able to heal Sasuke. Along the way, Naruto would be able to train, Ero-sennin began to teach him a jutsu created by the Yondaime Hokage, the Rasengan. It took Naruto forever, but he finally began to get the hang of it._

_He remembered finding the old hag named Tsunade at a bar along with her niece and assistant Shizune. Ero-sennin told her that she was chosen to be the Godaime Hokage. She started to talk bad about the Sandaime, as well as the title Hokage, so Naruto got angry and challenged her to a fight. She beat him with one finger. He charged at her again, and tried to hit her with a Rasengan. Her eyes widened at the jutsu. He hadn't mastered it yet, but he was close. "Why do you care about the Hokage so much?"_

_"Because…to be Hokage…that is my dream!" Her eyes widened in recognition. She began to spout off at the mouth to Jiraiya, saying that he was a fool for teaching Naruto a jutsu that he couldn't learn and giving him hope for a dream that couldn't come true. Naruto got angry. "Just watch! I'll have this just down in a week, and then I'll kick your ass!"_

_Tsunade looked at him. "I'll tell you what, brat, let's make a bet. If you can master that jutsu in a week, I'll give you my necklace."_

_"…why the hell would I want that?"_

_"Naruto, you idiot. That necklace belonged to the Shodiame Hokage, it's one of only two in the world. It's supposed to be worth a gold mine and the mountain that sits on it." Jiraiya said._

_"Fine! I'll be taking that necklace from you, hag! Believe it!"_

_He trained for a week relentlessly. On the last night, he passed out. He didn't wake up until the next morning. Shizune was in a panic and Jiraiya was pissed. The old hag had left. Apparently Orochimaru offered to bring back Tsunade's dead brother and boyfriend if she healed his arms that were damaged in the fight against the Sandaime. _

_She was in fighting Orochimaru and Kabuto when they got there. Kabuto took advantage of Tsunade's fear of blood to gain the upper hand. Shizune jumped in but Kabuto beat her after a struggle. He was going to kill Tsunade. Naruto got involved and tried to beat Kabuto back. Kabuto rushed at him with a kunai in hand._

_"Naruto move! Don't protect me! Dreams don't come true if you're dead!"_

_"Just watch, Baa-chan. I'm gonna win that bet." He caught Kabuto's hand, the kunai lodged itself between his fingers. It hurt like a bitch. He paid Kabuto back, a hundred-fold…with a fully formed, perfected Rasengan to the chest. Kabuto managed to use medical ninjutsu to sever the arteries to Naruto's heart before being blasted away. He was laying on the ground, Tsunade hovering over him, praying that he not die. He reached up, and touched the necklace. "I win, Baa-chan."_

_He remembered hearing that Sasuke left the village to join Orochimaru. He remembered Sakura's at the gate before he left. He remembered his anger at Sasuke for making her cry. He remembered his heart shattering at her words. "Please, bring him back. Bring Sasuke-kun back to me! You're the only one who can do it!"_

_He remembered the pain. None of the beatings, glares, curses, or death threats had ever hurt him more. But he smiled. "Hey, don't worry Sakura-chan! It'll be alright! I can see how much you care about Sasuke. I'll bring him back! I promise! It's the promise of a lifetime! Believe it!"_

_He remembered the fight against Sasuke, the Chidori through the lung. _

_He remembered meeting the Yondaime Hokage, Minato Namikaze…his father. He remembered the discussion they had, Naruto's mission._

_He remembered Madara's "training". The torture. The beatings. The Tsukuyomi. The Amaterasu. The fear. The hope of death._

_He remembered the emerald eyes. Sakura-chan's eyes…_

He rose with a start. His head hurt terribly. It was hard to move. His entire body seemed to be on fire. He was sweating profusely. Flashes of the memories appeared in his head. The pain. He almost threw up. But he couldn't. There was nothing in his stomach. He looked at the ground and saw the Akatsuki cloak and ring beside him.

_'How long have I been here?' _

He struggled to stand up, grabbing the cloak and ring as he went. The sweat-drenched cloak he was wearing made it difficult to stand but eventually he stood, legs wobbling, and almost fell back down. He made his way to the stairs, using the wall to help him. He finally made it out of the basement, after struggling with the closed door for a few minutes, due to his weakness and the doors weight. He looked around and noticed faint sunlight trickling through the windows.

He hadn't seen the sun in over three years.

With his cloak and ring in hand, he made his way to the door. He eyes flicked over one of the larger broken pieces of glass as he tried to avoid them. He paused and carefully bent down to pick the piece up. He held it back a little bit, so he could see his full reflection.

_'Holy shit! I look just like the Yond…my dad…'_ He stood there for a second, before dropping the piece of glass. He was still unsure of what to think of the Yondaime, his childhood was still at the forefront of his mind. He'd give it more thought later though, he had some things to do.

He managed the rest of the way to the door without falling, and walked out.

The sun hit his face, its warmth filling him like it never had before. Amidst a rush of adrenaline, he sprinted to the large hill that overlooked the ruined village and faced west, staring at the sun. It was late evening, and the sun was not yet touching the horizon.

He collapsed to his knees and cried. Cried for his pain, and cried for being alive. _He was alive._

The sun was well on its way to setting by the time he finally stood. He was tired and starving. He had no supplies, but he needed to get some. His mind wandered to the small village he passed through to get to the ruins. He recalled the ninja shop he sped by. He'd start there.

He looked behind him, at the desolate ruins, and the crashing ocean far behind. Knowing he might never come back to this place, he took one last long look, drinking in the view. It was a beautiful sight, but melancholy. The light of the setting sun splayed over the ruins and the plains, the slight wind blowing softly over the area. It was a lonely sight. He turned, and was off into the sunset.

Naruto reached the small village around an hour later, the sun having finally set and the night taken over. He folded the Akatsuki cloak and slipped it under the cloak he was wearing, holding it against his body so that it would not fall. He made his way through the streets of the village, luckily not many people were around. He pulled on his hood so it hung low over his face, making sure that no one could see his features. He passed a drunk man lying on the ground outside of a bar. The bar rang of laughter, but no one seemed to notice that this man was passed out just outside. Needing money, Naruto searched the man and ended up taking a healthy amount from him. He felt remorseful for taking money from a sleeping man, but he had things to do, and the money was probably going to just get spent on more booze anyway, so what the hell. He was doing this guy a favor.

He found the ninja shop and stepped inside. Looking around, Naruto picked out three pouches, two large and one small, a holster that would fit a couple kunai, a couple smoke bombs, some wire, a couple blank scrolls, some ink pens to write with, and a pack. He was about to head to the counter to pay for the items, when he noticed a rack of masks at the far side of the shop.

_'Probably a good idea to pick out a mask, this cloak will only do so much to hide my face. It's not a good idea walking around looking like the spitting image of the Yondaime Hokage in Hi no Kuni…well the spitting image, but with whiskers I guess…'_

He walked over and picked out two masks (it couldn't hurt to have a spare, just in case), one was all black with a large white 'X' in the middle, right between the eyes. The second mask was a dark blue color. Both masks had a piece of elastic stretching around the back that was meant to grip the head so that the mask wouldn't slip off. It would also serve to conceal the hair of the person wearing it.

He walked to the counter and paid for the supplies, the shop owner payed him no mind, probably thinking he was just another ninja passing through. He stepped out of the shop and into the ally next to it. He placed all of his items in his pack, as well as the Akatsuki cloak and the ring, and slipped it over his shoulder. He would arrange all of his gear later. Naruto had just enough money for something to eat, so he managed to find the town store and bought three loaves of bread. He began eating one as he went to the edge of town, where he noticed a signpost with the names of different villages written on arrows pointing in different directions. He took note of the name of the village to the north of the town and smiled.

He had an idea of what he wanted to do, but there were things that he needed to get a hold of first. He took a bite of one of the bread loaves he bought, finishing it, and looked up into the sky. He reached in his pack and took out the black mask with the white 'X' mark on it. He slipped it on, making sure that the elastic covering completely concealed his hair and raised his hood back over his head.

He ran off into the night, heading north. Towards Konoha.

* * *

><p>Ok, so that was chapter two, hopefully everybody enjoyed. Naruto got his memories back, now what's he going to do?<p>

Anyway, just wanted to make a quick couple of statements, the first of which being that I might not be able to update for a while, as it's getting close to that time of year when school decides to be a pain in my ass, meaning that I have two papers due Friday and three finals to study for next week. Hopefully I can get a chapter out the week after next, but I'm not entirely sure.

Also, I ran across a good idea from the author of one of my favorite fics where you list an NS story at the end of each chapter to engage the NS fans a little bit and keep our wonderful fandom alive and well, since we all know that NS should have been canon because it made sense, it wasn't forced, it wasn't disgusting, and it didn't destroy the character development of every single character in the story for the sake of a side-character that never really did anything lol

So since it was her idea, the first story I'm going to recommend is **The End of Shadows** by **azfaerydust**. It's absolutely one of my all time favorites, it's cute, it's charming, and it's absolutely hysterical! I've been meaning to leave a review for the longest time, but I keep forgeting because I'm a clumsy, forgetful bastard, but the next chapter, I swear will review (assuming az ever sees this). I highly recommend it, it truly is a great fic.

Mmk, that's it for my little spiel, hopefully everyone has a great week, two weeks, holiday, whatever it turns out to be! See ya next time!


	3. Chapter 3

Disclaimer: I do not own _Naruto. _Any recognizable characters, locations, and concepts are property of Masashi Kishimoto. There may be times in the story that scenes from the anime _Naruto _appear in this story, such scenes belong to Kishimoto and those at VIZ media. No copyright infringement is intended, I am just doing this for fun.

Hey guys! Hope everyone is doing well! It's been a while, I know (I got caught up in a manga called Tokyo Ghoul, omg it's fantastic), but I wanted to get out one update before the end of the year (good lord, I'm cutting it close), so here we are!

Once again! Thanks for the reviews! There are still a couple of you I have to reach out to, but I will get that done (most likely tomorrow). Enjoy!

Chapter 3

_"Sakura-chan..."_

_"Sakura-chan..."_

_"Sakura-chan...wake up Sakura-chan..."_

_She opened her eyes...Naruto's smiling face looked down at her...Those eyes...how she missed those eyes. The pools of sapphire twinkle brightly, drawing her in. She couldn't look away. She leaned in, his luscious lips getting closer..._

Her eyes snapped open. That dream again. It wasn't the first time she had that dream, or other dreams with Naruto present. Even after he died over three years ago, the blonde haired boy continued to watch over her. Keep her company. Be a part of her life. He even changed with her. As she grew, so did he. At first, in her dreams, Naruto was the little boy she remembered. But then he grew. He became taller, more rugged, with a perfectly toned chest, and a beautifully sculpted face, and those eyes. Damn those beautiful eyes. More than once had she dreamed what that body could have done to her, what that face could have done to her, all the places where those lips could bring her pleasure. And more than once had she woken up hot and bothered with wet panties...she loved those dreams. She got to see Naruto again. Treasure the warmth he brought to her life. She got to see that smile again. That foxy smile that lit her heart ablaze and sent butterflies soaring through her stomach.

And then she felt guilty after waking up from having those dreams. Naruto was dead, and she didn't realize how much she needed him until after his passing.

She noticed the alarm clock buzzing.

_'Damn alarm clock. That dream could have gone so much farther...'_

She reached for the alarm clock and turned it off. It was six in the morning, Sakura was an early riser, working at the hospital meant that she had to be up at the crack of dawn. Her shifts usually didn't start until nine, but she liked to get a little training in beforehand so she had to wake up early and go before work, she was always too exhausted to train after work. She smiled to herself as she thought of how Naruto would have still been sleeping at this hour, he would never have woken up this early. She remembered the day she got the news that Naruto died…

_She was anxious. Incredibly anxious. It had been over 20 hours since she last saw Naruto. Shikimaru, Choji, Neji, Lee, and Kiba (and his ninja hound partner, Akamaru) had all been brought back by a scouting party, with the aid of Kakashi-sensei's ninja hounds and Gaara, Temari, and Kankuro, who had been sent for by Tsunade in a request for assistance. They were all in bad shape, Neji, Kiba, Akamaru, and Choji had nearly died and were undergoing emergency procedures to keep them alive. Shikimaru didn't need much medical treatment, it was his mental state that was causing him trouble. It was his mission to lead, and three of his comrades got critically injured on his watch._ _It only made it worse that there was no sign of either Naruto or Sasuke yet, Kakashi-sensei hadn't returned. _

_"Hey, don't worry Sakura-chan! It'll be alright! I can see how much you care about Sasuke. I'll bring him back! I promise! It's the promise of a lifetime! Believe it!" He gave his signature huge goofy grin and a thumbs up. Lee had said that was the "nice-guy pose." It meant that he wouldn't fail her. But she couldn't help the sinking pit in her stomach. She felt an incredible amount of fear. It threatened to overwhelm her. _

_She was walking to the Hokage's tower to check and see if there was any report of what had happened. After a couple of minutes, she finally reached the stairs on the side of the building and started to climb her way up and inside the tower. She walked around a curved hallway and arrived in front of the Hokage's door. She knocked once before hearing a gruff reply._

_"Come in!" a voice said. Sakura twisted the handle and walked in._

_"What do you wan-…Oh. It's you." said Tsunade. Sakura looked at the Sannin turned Hokage. She was everything that Sakura wanted to be as a Kunoichi. Strong, intelligent, and beautiful. Not to mention she had a huge rack. Sakura secretly prayed that she would be able to fill out like the Hokage did later in her years. It might help her to impress Sasuke-kun and gain his favor over that stupid Ino-pig. Sakura stopped her deliberations and took regained her focus on her surroundings. Standing in the circular room along the wall to the left of the Hokage was Jiraiya, the Toad Sage, one of the Legendary Sannin along with Tsunade and Orochimaru. He was tall and very muscular. Normally people described him as a very cheerful man, albeit a bit (try a lot) perverted. He displayed none of those features on his face though, as he stared out one of the windows in a row that wrapped around the room. Sakura thought she could see a tear. She looked back at the Hokage and saw the hazel eyes laced with red. Why were they crying? Someone to the right of Sakura cleared their throat, gaining her attention._

_"Kakashi-sensei! You're back! Where's Sasuke-kun? Is he back? Is he okay? And Naruto? I bet that idiot is okay too, right?" she asked with a smile on her face._

_"Sakura…" Her smile slowly faded as she heard the tone in his voice. It was not one of cheerfulness, as one would expect from recovering teammates. She immediately began to worry. That feeling she had on the walk to the Hokage tower started to surface again…_

_"Kakashi-sensei…What's going on? Where's Sasuke-kun? And Naruto? Did they get beat up bad? Are they in the hospital?"_

_Kakashi stared, trying to say the words that he had to, but they wouldn't come out of his mouth. Tsunade noticed and sighed._

_"Sakura. The mission was a failure. Sasuke succeeded in escaping our borders. He should be in Orochimaru's custody at the present." she said. _

_Tears threatened to fall from Sakura's eyes. "No…Sasuke-kun can't…Naruto promised! He promised that he would bring Sasuke-kun back! HE wouldn't fail! He prom-"_

_"Enough!" growled Jiraiya. The first word he said since Sakura stepped in was only a whisper, but the weight it carried was more powerful than if he had yelled it. "It's time to stop thinking about that traitor."_

_"Traitor? Sasuke-kun is not a traitor! Take that back! He is not a trait-"_

_"Sasuke Uchiha is a traitor to Konaha! He defected from the village to join Orochimaru, and killed a Konoha ninja in the process. He doesn't deserve tears, or sympathy. So knock it off!" Jiraiya said._

_"Jiraiya!" Tsunade whispered heatedly, glaring at her longtime friend and teammate._

_"What? She was going to find out sooner or later. Might as well be now, from us, rather than some third party. It might help her get her head out of her ass and see that Uchiha brat for what he really is."_

_Sakura wasn't really paying attention to Jiraiya's last statement though. She was busy trying to wrap her head around what he had said previously… "Killed a Konoha ninja?" she said, looking around. "What do you mean? Shikimaru, Choji, Neji, Kiba and Akamaru, and even Lee are all back! They're all in the hospital! Who did he-" Her eyes widened in realization. Tears that threatened to fall before spilled out over her cheeks and down her face freely now. Her hand covered her mouth. "No…"_

_"Yeah…." Kakashi stated. "Sasuke…killed Naruto."_

_"It can't be…he wouldn't…Naruto can't be…" She looked around at Tsunade and Jiraiya. Tsunade had both of her eyes shut, tears falling as she silently cried. Jiraiya had a grimace on his face as he looked out the window next to him. A lone tear fell from Kakashi's uncovered eye as he continued on._

_"I got there too late. There were signs of a large fight. I found Naruto's body laying by a tree covered in flames. There was a hole right under his heart, made by a Chidori…I used the sharingan just in case, and the chakra signature of the body matched Naruto's. Sasuke killed Naruto." He raised in his hand a headband. Naruto's headband._

_Sakura fell to her knees and cried. _

She stared at her alarm clock, reminiscing. It was…hard…after that. Her world came crashing down around her ears. She sobbed for what seemed like hours, and somehow she found herself in her bedroom. She didn't leave her bedroom for days, her mother was worried because she barely ate anything during that time. A week had passed before she had finally left her house. She had ran in to her academy sensei, Iruka Umino, and from him she learned that the council members, much to the delight of a large portion of the village, didn't even allow Naruto a burial. She had wandered her way to the memorial close to where Team 7 trained and stopped in front of it, barely noticing Shikimaru and Kakashi. She stood for what seemed like hours in front of the memorial, dedicated to those heroes of Konoha that had died in the line of duty. While many in the village considered Sasuke Uchiha a hero for finally ridding them of that demon trash, there she was, honoring Naruto as her hero. She remembered turning away without a word, and Shikimaru getting angry. It was the only time she had ever seen him so animated. It was a strange experience.

_"That's it? You're not even going to say anything?"_

_"No."_

_"He died for you, and you aren't even going to say goodbye? Our entire class had knew he had a crush on you, and he died because he had a crush on you, and you aren't even going to give him the time of day, even after he's dead?" he choked. Sakura looked back at Shikimaru, only to see him in tears. He wasn't doing well either. Naruto died on his watch, under his command. _

_"…No…" she said, walking away._

_"Why the hell not?"_

_"Because…"_

_"Because what? Don't tell me you've been listening to that garbage the villagers are spewing! Don't you dare tell me you think that Sasuke is some kind of hero now, even more so than you troublesome fangirls did in the academy! Why the hell are you walking away from him?!"_

_"Because…" she voiced softly. She started to tremble. Each breath made it a little harder to breathe. Tears began to spill out of her eyes and down her cheeks. "…because I don't deserve it…" Kakashi looked down at his only student with sadness, his visible eye showing understanding. He had felt the same all these years…_

_"What?" Shikimaru questioned._

_"…I don't deserve to say goodbye to him like this. I'm too weak. I sent him out there and he died trying to fulfill a promise he made to me, because I wasn't strong enough to do it myself. He was nothing but nice to me, but I was only ever mean to him. I only ever belittled him and hit him, and pushed him away to try to gain the favor of someone that didn't ever care about anybody but himself. I don't deserve to say goodbye to someone like him. Not like I am now…" _

Sakura had left then, heading back home. She spent a couple of days in her room again before venturing out. The scene had made her sick. Decorations were still hung around parts of the village from the impromptu festival thrown by a large portion of the villagers in honor of the day the demon child was exterminated by the Uchiha 'hero'. She walked through the streets, disgusted, as she pondered what Naruto had ever done to deserve the hatred of the villagers. Her disgust was intensified even more when she was approached by a group of people wondering what it was like to be on the same squad with the village 'hero'. Sakura remembered walking away without a word, tears threatening to fall as she thought of their cruelty. She had made her way to the Hokage tower, hoping to ask the Hokage for a favor.

_She stood in that circular room once again, occupied by the same people as when she had been here just over a week ago._

_"Train me."_

_"…" Tsunade looked at Kakashi. Kakashi stared at Sakura. He had told the Hokage that she would want to be trained. She knew the motives behind the request, but she wanted to hear for herself. Hazel eyes met emerald. _

_"Train me."_

_"Why?"_

_"So I can earn the right to say 'Goodbye'."_

Tsunade had taken her under her wing then, and Sakura began training. The training was tough, the Hokage was a slave driver. There were times when Sakura was drilled so hard in physical training that she couldn't move, or had to read so much text on the medical field that the room would spin due to mental exhaustion. She was pushed to the brink time and time again.

But there was one constant through it all. During the times where she felt close to giving up, when she felt that she could go no further, when she could read no more, she saw him, smiling at her, sapphire eyes glowing. Sometimes it was just a smile, sometimes it was a hand on her shoulder, sometimes it was a soft _"Sakura-chan"_ and she would feel his warmth, and she would press on.

His warmth. That's what she missed the most. The warmth that oozed out of those bright blue eyes and that goofy smile of his. The "Sakura-chan" that was reserved for him and him alone. Nobody else would ever be allowed to call her that. In months that followed his death, she had often looked back to the time she spent crying in her room. She thought about it, and she realized that not one tear was ever shed for Sasuke. Not one second did she ever mourn him, not one second did she feel anything toward him but anger. As the days had passed by, she realized that it wasn't ever Sasuke that had made her days bright and sunny, it was Naruto. How stupid could she have been to think that Sasuke, that cold, heartless, son of a bitch _Sasuke _was the one that gave her that warmth. She had pushed what Naruto gave her onto Sasuke. How naïve. The only time she had ever felt any kind of warmth around Sasuke was when he complimented her forehead on the bench on the day that Team 7 first met. The compliment itself was something along the lines Naruto would say, not Sasuke. She had wondered if it was actually Naruto that day, transformed as Sasuke. She would never be able to find out though. Not anymore. She wouldn't be able to tell him how much he meant to her. She didn't deserve to, anyway. Not in her mind.

She remembered the day, a couple months after his death, on his birthday, that she had realized she had fallen in love with the knucklehead. She had been thinking about him when it hit her like a ton of bricks out of nowhere. She was in love with Naruto Uzumaki. But he was dead. Since his death, Ino had tried to set her up with a couple boys as they got older. But she wasn't ever interested. She would never be. Not unless they had sun-kissed blonde hair, sapphire eyes, the biggest, goofiest grin on the face of the planet, all topped off with whisker marks on his cheeks. No, there could be no one else.

Sakura climbed out of bed reluctantly, passed by the balcony entrance in her room, and headed to the shower in the bathroom. She turned on the water, making sure it was nice and hot before she stepped in. Once she was done a couple minutes later, Sakura stepped out and looked into the mirror in her bathroom. Her pink hair ran to just above her creamy, porcelain shoulders. She stood at 5'6", much of that height due to her long, slender legs. Her build was lean and athletic, as well as deceptive. Many would underestimate the power she held inside her due to her frame. She had a small but moderate bust size, her breasts were nowhere near as large as Ino, Hinata, or even Tsunade's breasts. She had spent long nights hoping that she would fill out a little more, especially in the chest region, but that never really came to pass. Her hips were shapely, and well-proportioned to fit the rest of her body. The most striking feature, though, were her emerald eyes that just radiated beauty and intelligence.

Using a towel hanging from her wall, she dried herself off, wrapped it snugly around her, and walked back into her bedroom, in front of her dresser. She picked out her usual red vest, a pair of spandex shorts that would reach about mid-thigh, a pink miniskirt that would sit over the spandex shorts, a small pink bra, and a pair of bright pink panties. The panties she picked sat next to a lacy, ruby red thong that Ino had gotten her for her 17th birthday a couple months ago, claiming that she needed to loosen up and that these would help her. Never once had she even put on the lingerie, and she didn't plan to. She walked back into the bathroom, got dressed, fixed her hair, and brushed her teeth, before walking out of her bathroom, out of her room, and went to the kitchen downstairs. She made herself a light breakfast before heading over to the door and slipping on her black ninja-style boots. She contemplated leaving her mother a note to say she left, but her mother was already well acquainted with the fact that Sakura's hospital duties left her with sporadic work hours, so it wouldn't be a surprise to see that her daughter was gone this early in the morning. She looked at the clock on the wall in the living room, it read 6:45. Normally, it would take her about fifteen minutes to get to the training field from her house just by walking. She would train for about an hour, then run back home to take a shower, head off to the hospital and be there at around 8:30, and she would start her day. Today, however, she decided to forgo training in favor of heading to the hospital to sit behind her desk and get a head start on the paperwork that was no doubt waiting for her on her desk. God she hated paperwork, but it was a necessity in her line of work. It hadn't taken her long to figure out why Tsunade-sama avoided the stuff like the plague. No wonder she was so drunk all the time.

Opening the door, Sakura stepped out into the brisk autumn morning. The land of fire had a reputation for being a warm place, the sun rose earlier and sank later than usual no matter the season, filling the land with warmth for the majority of the day. Today was no different. Almost seven o'clock, and here the sun was already peeking out over the horizon. But Sakura could hardly feel its warmth. She hadn't felt truly warm in years.

She walked slowly along the road, passing closed shops that would, in about an hours' time, be bustling with life and activity. She walked slow, soaking up as much as the outside world as she could before being confined to the hospital all day. She didn't mind dealing with patients, it was her pride and joy to be able to heal those who were hurt, fix that which was broken, and welcome new life to the world. But lord did the paperwork suck. But she did it anyway, no matter how much she grumbled. Before she knew it, she was at the hospital doors. Taking a breath, she stepped through the doors.

The usual antiseptic smell greeted her, followed by the cheery call of the receptionist. How anyone could be cheerful at this time of the morning was beyond Sakura. She greeted the receptionist and moved to her office in the administrative section of the first floor. She opened her door, and waiting for her was a lovely stack of papers on her desk. The only thing that was missing was a pink bow on top.

_'Well, it's gotta get done sometime…'_ she sighed to herself. She sat down at her desk and took a look at the clock. _'7:10 huh? Ino should be in at around 8:30ish, if she is on time, stupid Ino-pig…hopefully I can knock out a good portion of this paperwork before she barges in here hooting and hollering about patients needing attention.' _She begrudgingly began her paper work. Most of her duties regarding the paperwork consisted of reviewing diagnoses of patients, making sure they were consistent with the symptoms, and double checking the prescription recommendations before she sent the papers to the pharmacy department to prepare the subscription. It was long, tedious work, but it had to be done, and done well. Mistakes on this paperwork could have costly consequences. So she checked, double-checked, and triple-checked each document before storing them away inside patient files and placing those on the side of the desk. She made it a decent way through the stack before someone, Ino, of course, barged into the room.

"Hey, forehead." She said.

"Hey pig." Sakura said, looking over at her friend. Ino was just about the same height as Sakura, with long, blonde hair, tied up in a pony-tail that traveled down to her wide hips. Part of her bangs came down over her face and covered her left eye, leaving only the teal right eye visible. She wore a purple top that stopped just above her belly button, exposing a decent amount of skin, and also, to Sakura's ever growing annoyance, drawing attention to her well-proportioned bust. She wore a purple skirt to match her top, and wore a standard lab coat over it. Ino was very attractive, and had many hopefuls across the male population of Konoha vying for her attention. Which she knew. The knowledge made her almost obnoxious when it came to boys, and she always seemed to pester Sakura on her love life, or lack thereof, at every opportunity. And right on cue-

"So, Forehead, have you found a boyfriend yet?"

"Can it, Pig."

"What? I'm just doing my due diligence as your best friend and making sure that you don't end up alone and wrinkly for the rest of your life. You're gonna have to get out and about sometime Sakura."

"Look, Ino, I told you a thousand times, I'm not interested. I don't care about getting a boyfriend, I don't care about growing old and wrinkly, I don't care about anything other than my duties. I just…" Sakura trailed off.

"…It's his birthday tomorrow, isn't it?" Ino whispered quietly. Sakura gave a sharp nod of her head in response, biting her lip and clenching her fists on top of her knee. "Sakura…"

"It's my fault…He went out there for me. I asked him to bring Sasuke back. I was selfish, I just-"

"It wasn't your fault. No one would have guessed that Sasuke would do that to Naruto…" Ino interrupted.

_She remembered when she got the news from Shikimaru. Team 10 had finally got together after Choji was released from the hospital. They met at a barbeque restaurant that became the team tradition to attend after a mission, whether a success, or a failure. Neji, Lee, Kiba and Akamaru had been released from the hospital as well, and they, along with their teammates (Tenten, teammate to Neji and Lee, Hinata and Shino, teammates to Kiba and Akamaru) and jonin sensei (Asuma as Team 10 leader, Kurenai as team 8 leader, and Gai as Team Gai leader) all met up to eat. They all sat down at a round table with a grill in the center, waiting to be filled with meat. The waitress stopped and took everyone's orders, slightly taken aback by Gai and Lee's obsession with having enough meat to satisfy the flame of one's youth (to which Neji and Tenten groaned audibly). A few minutes later, the waitress came back with a plate full of meat, and began to place them on the grill in the center of the table. Choji, to Ino's disgust, was salivating over the meat. Finally, after a long wait, and Ino's constant nagging of Choji, much to everyone's relief and pleasure, the meat was finally done and everyone began to fill their plates. They talked amicably for a while, Shikimaru seemed to be out of it though, which Ino took notice of._

_"Hey Shikamaru. What's up? Why do you look so down?"_

_"I'm fine, don't worry about it."_

_"Hey, you know what?" Kiba said. "I just noticed those Team 7 bastards aren't around. Where the hell are they? This is the first time all of us have been together in a while, and they didn't even bother to show up!"_

_Gai, Kurenai, Asuma, and Shikamaru all stiffened at the mention of Team 7._

_"Hey you know what?I'll bet that rotten Forehead-girl is living it up, right there Sasuke-kun's hospital room, trying to get him to like he-" Ino started._

_"SHUT UP, INO!" Everybody turned to look at Shikimaru, stunned at his uncharacteristic outburst. Asuma, Kurenai, and even Gai looked down, visibly saddened. _

_"Ino…" Asuma started, "…the retrieval mission was a failure. Sasuke Uchiha successfully fled the village and is believed to be in the custody of Orochimaru at the present time."_

_The genin at the table stared at Asuma in disbelief._

_"No way. Naruto failed? There is no way that he would have failed!" Kiba said, almost shouting._

_"Kiba is absolutely right! There is no way that Naruto would fail! The flames of his youth shone too brightly that day! Right, Gai-sensei?" Lee said._

_"That is impossible. There is no way that Naruto would not have brought the Uchiha back." Neji stated flatly. _

_"We're not lying to you." Kurenai said, sadness in her red eyes. "Sasuke Uchiha escaped…"_

_"Oh man…Sakura must be disappointed." Ino whispered._

_"Yeah. And Naruto too…He and Sasuke were always at each other's throats, but they were like best friends…" Choji added. And that's when Shikamaru choked. He put his hands over his face, but not before everybody saw his unwilling tears._

_"Shikamaru…what's wrong?" Ino asked._

_"…Naruto…didn't make it…"_

_"What? He didn't make what?"_

_Shikamaru raised his head from his hands and looked all the genin in the eyes. "Naruto didn't make it. He was killed by Sasuke…"_

Needless to say, everyone had been stunned. Ino remembered that moment ever so clearly. It was the first time that she ever saw Choji look sick in the middle of a meal. Nobody said a word for the longest time, they all just sat there, eyes and mouths wide. Ino had put her hand over her mouth as tears threatened to spill out over her cheeks. She didn't get to hear anybody's response, she stood and rushed out of the restaurant, intent on finding Sakura to make sure she was okay. She had ran to her house, but received no answer. Ino hadn't seen Sakura until a few days later. Sakura looked miserable and disheveled. When Ino ran up to her, Sakura mumbled something about being on her way to the Hokage's office. It was months before Ino would be able to have any kind of serious talk about the incident with Sakura.

"Were we really that shallow, Ino?" Sakura asked, bringing Ino back down to Earth. "Were we really that stupid? Competing over a guy that was that cold, and doing nothing but being horrible to Naruto? Sasuke chose to reject the world around him, Naruto was busy fighting to not be rejected by the world. We chose to chase the boy that hated the world, and reject the boy that wanted so badly to be loved by it. Were we really that ignorant?"

Ino looked over at Sakura to see her pink haired best friend crying. Ino started to tear up as well, she had looked back a couple years ago at the way she and others had treated Naruto when he was alive and was absolutely disgusted with herself. She moved over to Sakura and wrapped her in a hug.

"Yeah, we were…" she whispered. The two sat next to each other, crying silently for a few minutes before Ino finally spoke again. "Come on, Forehead, let's go. We've got patients to attend to. Mrs. Najenda's massive infected bunions aren't going to diagnose themselves, you know."

"Ewww." Sakura groaned. She really didn't want to touch Mrs. Najenda's nasty feet. "She comes back every time and it's always the same problem. She doesn't ever listen, nor does she take her medicine. I don't wanna touch her nasty feet anymore!"

"I know, I know. But just be glad you don't have to deal with Mr. Shyra's back sores, those things are absolutely disgusting. I have to go through a bottle of hand sanitizer after examining those things just to feel safe!" Both girls laughed and wiped their tears before making sure they were presentable and walking out of Sakura's office.

The day was long and tiresome. Sakura moved on from those disgusting bunions and the hag they belonged to, to multiple emergency surgeries involving field teams with overzealous members trying to train. She had to eat lunch on her feet before being thrown back into the chaos that was the hospital. Finally, after five total emergency surgeries, the longest of which lasted three hours, Sakura could finally call it a day. Well, a night. Sakura looked up and stared at the clock on the hospital lobby, it read eleven o'clock. She had been here all day. Ino had left a couple hours before, leaving Sakura on her own. Sakura exited the hospital and shivered in the cool air. Not wanting to stay in the cold, she rushed home and ran through the door, sighing in relief as the warmth of her house rushed over her. Heading over to the kitchen, Sakura saw that her mother had made her some steak and rice and wrapped it, so Sakura could heat it up. She usually did that if Sakura wasn't home before she went to bed. Sakura placed the plate in the microwave, she cooked it for a couple of minutes, then began to eat. She didn't finish all of it, she was much too tired. She threw out what she couldn't eat, walked up to her room, and into the bathroom. She took off her clothes and jumped in the shower, staying in for a while to enjoy the soothing feeling it gave her. Once finished, she stepped out, dried herself off, and slipped into a pair of sweatpants and a large shirt, before walking back into her room and sitting in her chair at her desk in the corner of her room. She picked up a pen and a piece of paper, and began to write a letter.

_Dear Naruto_

She glanced at the clock on her desk.

12:15.

She continued on with her letter, finally putting down her pen a while later, having written a page on the small piece of paper. Sakura eyed the dying tulip in a small cup in the corner of her desk and sighed to herself, she would have to go get a new one from Ino's shop tomorrow. She put the paper in a drawer in her desk. Getting up from her desk, she moved to her bed directly across from the door to her balcony and huddled under the covers.

She glanced at the clock on her desk.

1:00

She had one last thought before drifting away to sleep.

_'Happy Birthday, Naruto.'_

* * *

><p>The cool night air washed over his bare back as he sat, crouched on his perch atop the wall surrounding the village. Beneath his black mask, Naruto's eyes shined with nostalgia. Here, on top of this wall, he crouched, overlooking Konoha. He was home.<p>

He stared out over the moonlit village, reminiscing. Sure, he had a lot of bad memories, but he had some pretty good ones too. He looked off to his right, and he could barely make out the memorial stone in the distance, and a little further behind it, team seven's old training ground. He wanted to go visit the place, but unfortunately he didn't have much time. He had veered west before coming to Konoha, looking for a place to settle in the mountains that lay in that area.

Naruto had gotten lucky. He had managed to find, in that mountain range (honestly, they couldn't even really be called mountains, nor a range, as they weren't all that tall and there was only ten peaks), a nice sized cave near the top of one of the mountains, which was nearly impossible to see from below. Of course, Naruto had been searching during the night, but the positioning would have made it extremely difficult to find even in the day. The only reason Naruto was able to see it was because he was jumping from tree to tree near the top of the one if the mountains. The cave rested on the side of the mountain, overlooking a valley that rested between mountains. In the center of the valley was a large lake. The spot was, in Naruto's opinion, a perfect place for his training, as the lake would help with any Suiton techniques, should he be able to utilize the nature type, and there was enough space for him to practice all other nature types as well, should he be compatible with those as well. Another thing that Naruto had taken note of was the surplus of game in the small mountain range. He would definitely not starve, that was for sure.

Naruto had emptied the contents of his pack in the circular cave, leaving the Akatsuki cloak, his second mask, and his Akatsuki ring behind. It would not due to wander around wearing the symbol of a terrorist organization. He filled one of the kunai pouches with the kunai had bought at the store and clipped the pouch to his at the right side of his back, on his hip, just above his butt. The other pouch, the empty one, he placed on the other side of his hip in the same position. He placed the blank scrolls and the pens in the now empty pack. The plan was to go back to Konoha and break into the scroll vault inside the Hokage tower in search of the Fūin no Sho, the same scroll he had learned the Kagebunshin no jutsu from. The scroll was huge, it wouldn't be wise to carry it with him, so instead he elected to just copy any useful jutsu down on the blank scrolls and be on his way. He couldn't remember what kind of jutsu the scroll held, the Kagebunshin no jutsu was one of the first in the scroll, and he had not bothered to look past it. He was hoping that it would contain jutsu that worked with the five natures. If his father was right when he had assessed Naruto's chakra, then there was a chance that Naruto would be able to use all give nature changes. If he was wrong, then it wouldn't hurt to know jutsu in all five of the changes, so that he could recognize the hand seals of an enemy and determine what type of jutsu would be used. If there wasn't many jutsu on the scroll that he deemed useful, then he wouldn't be past taking smaller scrolls with him, especially if he was pressed for time. Considering how late it was, he would probably have to steal a bunch of scrolls anyway. He had been about to step out of the cave when the desire to get rid of the cloak he was wearing hit him. It probably wasn't a good idea, since the cloak would help hide him in the night, but ever since he got to feel the sun for that brief period after leaving Uzushiogakure, he felt like the cloak was constricting. He had been stuck in some underground cave for over three years and had missed the kiss of the elements on his skin. So, he took the cloak off, threw it to the ground and left the cave. Before sprinting off to Konoha, he made sure to leave small traces of his chakra on some of the trees nearby the cave so that he would be able to locate it again once he came back. His sensory skill had improved tremendously since he was a Konoha ninja, so it wouldn't be much of a problem.

Naruto guessed that it took him roughly two hours to get from the cave to the gates of Konoha. That, plus the two hours he estimated it took him to get from that ninja outpost village to the mountain range, and the hour or so he guessed it took him to find the cave, led him to believe that it was around one or two in the morning. He didn't have all that much time to get in, find what he needed to, and get out before the ninja in the village rose for the morning. Most ninja rose well before the civilian population, not out of liking to be early risers, but simply due to habit from long years of waking up early in the field. Sure, there were still gaurds on duty, but avoiding them wouldn't be too much of a problem for him. He spent years avoiding ANBU after pulling pranks around the village, so he could manage without getting seen. Naruto assumed that he would have two hours max to accomplish his goals before having to leave if he wanted to remain undetected.

Naruto looked down and as he was about to jump down, he noticed that his necklace, the incredibly rare necklace that no one else in the world had, was visible. He performed a couple hand seals and placed a genjutsu on the necklace, one that would render it invisible to anyone, including himself.

_'Speaking of rare, not everybody has blue eyes like mine...it wouldn't be good if someone caught a glimpse of my eye color and got suspicious...I doubt that it would happen, but you can't ever be too careful I guess. Christ, I sound like Kakashi-sensei, he would probably be proud...'_ he thought to himself. He performed another quick set of hand seals and cast another rudimentary genjutsu on his mask. Instead of rendering the eyeholes invisible though, he made it so that anyone that looked into the eyes of the mask would only see black, they wouldn't actually be able to see his eyes. He also made it so that the genjutsu on the mask and the necklace was permanent, so long as he wished it to be in effect. Even if he took the mask or the necklace off (he had no such intention) the genjutsu would be in place. All he had to do was perform a couple hand seals, and the genjutsu would be cancelled. Considering that Naruto had the genjutsu skills of an academy student normally, this was a pretty good accomplishment for him and he was quite proud of himself. Looking down again, he couldn't see the necklace, but he could still feel it on his chest, so he knew the genjutsu had worked. He would have to be careful with the necklace though. People might not be able to see it, but they could still feel it and know something was there. Chances are it wouldn't be much of a problem, but you never know. Satisfied that he was completely prepared, Naruto collected his near empty pack from the top of the wall next to him, and jumped down to the streets below.

He kept to the alleyways, keeping a constant eye on the occasional ninja on patrol. He couldn't take to the roofs as he once did, as most ninja tend to do, because of the risk of being seen by those on patrol. He masked his chakra so that sensory type ninja wouldn't be able to feel his presence. He peeked his head around the corner of a building to watch a ninja saunter away, not really keeping an eye on his surroundings. It was obvious that these ninja were caught up in the feeling of peace and security. No one in their right mind would dare attack Konoha, but then again, those that had attacked before had questionable sanity to begin with. Not that Naruto minded the lax patrol, of course, it would make his job that much easier. It was kind of unnerving though. He meant no ill will towards Konoha, but if he could get through, god knows who else could.

_'Really? Did these guys honestly forget what Orochimaru caused a long time ago?_' Orochimaru had invaded Konoha back when Naruto still lived here and caused massive damage to the village, and killed the Sandaime in the fight. During that time he managed to sink his fangs into Sasuke, literally, and gave him the curse mark, as well as an even bigger drive for power.

Shaking his head, Naruto waited until the patrolling ninja left the vicinity and sprinted forward, faster than the eye could see. He weaves his way through buildings in that manner until he reached the Hokage tower. Looking beyond the building, he saw five stone faces on the cliff in the background. Four men, and one women. The last time he stood in this village there was only four. He smiled wide under his black mask.

_'So, they put that old hag's ugly mug up on the Hokage Mountain, huh?'_ he thought proudly. He hadn't known her for long before his mission to retrieve Sasuke went up in flames, but in that time they grew really close. He came to think of the hag as a grandmother and vice versa. Hell, he'd basically adopted her during that ordeal with Orochimaru and Kabuto after the death of the Sandaime.

He ran to the side of the building, heading towards the staircase that lead inside. Climbing up, he reached the door at the top. The door was locked, and Naruto hadn't brought anything to pick locks, but he really wasn't worried about that. Making sure that there weren't any patrolling ninja nearby, Naruto channeled chakra to his feet and ran up the wall, to the ledge just outside of the Hokages office. He peered through the office through the row of windows that ran around the office and moved to the window two windows to the right of the Hokage's desk. He applied pressure on the lower two corners of the window and was rewarded with a click as the latch popped off the lock, and the window slid open.

_'Some things never change,'_ he thought to himself. This was the exact way he had broken into the office the first time he went after the Fūin no Sho.

He stepped inside the office, turned, closed the window behind him, and made his way to the door. He paused to take a nostalgic look behind him. Memories of a lost past played themselves in front of his eyes as he saw a younger Naruto stand not three feet from where he was standing. He turned, opened the door, and walked out. He took a left down the winding hallway, feet barely making a noise against the wood floors.

He passed a couple doors, before coming to a door marked "Storage" on his right. He performed three hand seals and funneled chakra into his hand, and turned the doorknob. Just as Mizuki told him all those years ago.

_'Did the Sandaime really keep the same jutsu formula as the lock to this door even after I got in? What the hell was he thinking?'_ He thought to himself. He stepped into the room and closed the door behind him.

He stood in a large circular room, every inch of the walls adorned with shelves, save for one window in the back of the room. The window was large enough that the moonlight that filtered in through the window provided enough light to see clearly, eliminating the need to turn on the light in the room. The shelves stood close to ten feet high, and were crammed full of scrolls and boxes of all sizes. Naruto's attention was drawn to a podium in the center of the room, on which a large scroll, around 3 feet long, sat. Naruto smiled to himself. He walked over to the podium, hefted it off of the podium, sat on the ground, and opened the scroll, as he had years before.

The large scroll did indeed contain many jutsu, but they were nearly all fūinjutsu, the few exceptions being the Kagebunshin no Jutsu and variations of it, as well as some kekkai ninjutsu. He didn't particularly care for fūinjutsu, and really had no desire to learn any. In Naruto's mind, seals were hard to use in the midst of a battle unless they were made prior, or unless you had all the tools available to execute the seals quickly and efficiently. It was hard to initiate fūinjutsu in the midst of a fight unless you had bountiful distractions, and time to prepare. Both of which were hard to come by in a fight against an experienced opponent. Not only that, but a fight between two high end shinobi typically only lasted a couple of minutes, which means that if you had to make a seal from scratch in the middle of a fight, the fight might be over by the end of the bout, rendering the seal obsolete before you even had the opportunity to use it.

However, fūinjutsu were considered extremely powerful, if the seal were to connect, the recipient could experience devastating effects and due to that, he couldn't help but think that some of these jutsu might be useful later on. Scanning the scroll, he eyed the Hakka no Fuin Shiki and the Shiki Fujin. According to the text, the Hakka no Fuin Shiki was a fūinjutsu that seals a body inside another body, and allows the vessel to draw off the power of the one sealed. The sealing pattern, a swirling pattern bordered by patterns that extended out from the edge of the seal, reminiscent of how one would draw the sun, was familiar to Naruto. The same symbol appeared on his stomach as a child when he tried to access the chakra of the Kyuubi.

_'So this is what he used to seal the Kyuubi inside me...'_ Naruto thought. The seal was strong, but it required the user to summon a sealing altar, and then perform the seal, and then use chakra to inscribe the seal formation on a scroll, establishing the scroll as a basis for the key to the seal. While powerful, it took too long to utilize. Naruto decided to pass on the Hakke no Fuin Shiki. With that he glanced at the Shiki Fujin, and was stunned at what he saw.

According to the scroll, the user of this particular seal summons the Shinigami behind him. The Shinigami then places a seal mark on the jutsu caster, which appears on the caster's stomach, the seal acting to bind the user's soul to the Shinigami. The Shinigami then passes its arm through the chest of the caster from behind, grabs the soul of the target, and pulls it inside the body of the user. Once that occurs, the Shinigami devours the soul of both the user and the target, trapping them inside its belly for all eternity. Naruto checked to see any set-up procedures and found that the only thing needed to prepare was a long stream of hand seals. The only drawback was that everything had to be perfect, you could not mess up a single sign, or the chakra pattern and control, or you would fail in summoning the Shinigami.

Naruto hesitated. The seal was incredibly powerful, it was almost difficult to believe that the jutsu was real. It was powerful, but it came at a cost. The target, as well as the user, died as a result. It was a jutsu only meant to be used as a last resort. Only against a powerful enemy with your back against the wall. Naruto thought of Madara, and decided that he should copy the jutsu. He reached into his pack, and withdrew a scroll and pen. Looking up, he saw a clock on the wall showing 1:30. Naruto estimated he had about an hour and a half left before he would have to leave. The jutsu would take a while to copy down, there were many elements that needed to be memorized, so he placed his fingers in a cross pattern and summoned ten kagebunshin.

"This scroll contains only fūinjutsu and kekkai ninjutsu. There isn't any elemental jutsu in here, so the ten of you need to look around here and find scrolls containing high level jutsu that utilizes the nature changes. Looking at the length of some of these fūinjutsu, I probably won't be able to write down many jutsu, so I'll just be taking the scrolls. Be fast, and be quiet. We don't have a lot of time, and I don't want to have company." The kagebunshin all nodded in agreement and spread out, searching for scrolls.

Naruto returned to his scrolls and began to write down the complex Shiki Fujin formula. The task seemed to take forever, it took him nearly half an hour. By that time, his clones had found multiple scrolls on the all five of the nature changes, placing them all into Naruto's pack. They continued to search while Naruto continues to read through the scroll. He copied down some other fūinjutsu that wouldn't take too long to create, as well as a few kekkai ninjutsu. Kekkai Ninjutsu were utilized to create barriers around spaces, protecting, or trapping, those inside, and could also be used for concealment purposes, like concealing hideouts from those enemies, thus Naruto's interest. He was in the midst of copying his last line of information when he heard a thud along with the telltale "poof" of a shadow clone dispersing. Cursing to himself at his clones' stupidity, he looked up.

_'How are you stupid enough to let a scroll drop on your damn hea-'_ he thought, before cutting himself off. For the first time in all the he had used the Kagebunshin no Jutsu, he noticed that he caught the memory of a clone once it dispersed. He remembered what happened to the clone before it had dispersed as well as what it had been looking at. The idiot clone had accidentally hit the edge of a shelf, causing a large scroll from the top to fall on his head, dispersing the clone. It was what the clone had found, that stunned Naruto. Apparently, the clone had brushed up against the wrong scroll, which appeared to be a trigger causing the bookshelf it was on to swing open a little bit.

_'A secret room behind a bookshelf? That's kinda cliché. Is this really the best the previous generations could come up with?'_ he thought. He signaled three of his clones to follow him, leaving the others to take care of finding more scrolls in the main room.

He pulled the bookshelf toward him all the way and stepped inside a small room. The room was only about ten feet wide and ten feet deep. Like the previous room, it was jam packed with scrolls and boxes. Unlike the previous room, there was no window. The only light available came from four small candles on the wall next to the entrance, lit by some kind of jutsu activated on the opening of the door. Grabbing one of the candles, Naruto looked around. Immediately, his gaze flicked to a three pronged kunai with a yellow handle hanging above a scroll and a box.

_'What the fuck kind of kunai is that?_' he thought, moving closer to it. He took the kunai off of the nail it was hanging from and it examined it closer. The three pronged kunai was heavy, heavier than most kunai. The handle was yellow, with kanji written across it. He took the lid off of the box that the kunai once hung above to find that there were more kunai. He put the lid back on the box and opened the scroll next to the box, and looked at the title of the scroll.

_'Hiraishin no Jutsu? Where have I heard that bef-'_ he thought before freezing. _'As in THE Hiraishin no Jutsu? The one that made my father famous? THAT Hiraishin no jutsu?'_

Naruto rolled up the scroll up the scroll, put the kunai that he had found hanging on the shelf into the box, and put the kid back on the box before taking it, and the scroll in his arms. He instructed the other clones in the room with him to keep searching before placing the candle in his hand back where he got it and stepping back into the larger room. He walked over to his pack, kneeled, and quickly organized the scrolls already inside the pack so that he could fit the box and the scroll on the Hiraishin. As soon as he was finished, a clone tapped him on the shoulder.

"Hey boss. You need to check this out," the clone said, handing him a manilla envelope.

"What is it?" Naruto asked.

"Apparently that room we were just in doesn't contain just jutsu. It contains anything that could be a danger to Konoha. Any kind of secrets or techniques deemed to be dangerous to the village are kept in that room for storage. Things like powerful jutsu and data on past events are kept in there. It's a record room, for the eyes of the higher ups only. I was looking through a section of records on past Konoha nuke-nin, when I found that. Open it."

Naruto opened the manilla folder and pulled out the first page. There was a profile of a ninja on it. Naruto froze with recognition at the name.

Itachi Uchiha.

Naruto looked up at his clone with wide eyes. The clone gave a nod if his head urging him to continue on. Naruto pulled out all the papers and read. He skimmed through the file, finding that it detailed everything Konoha knew about Itachi. Mission count, mission reports, jutsu capabilities, nothing was left out.

And then he reached a page with the heading "Uchiha Mission". What Naruto read on that three page report made his blood freeze.

_'This can't be real,_' he thought to himself. He looked at the bottom of the last page of the report and saw a familiar handwriting. The signature of the Sandaime Hokage. _'Jiji...how could you?'_

Naruto sat, stunned, for a couple of seconds. He put all the papers in order and put them back into the manila envelope. He hesitated, thinking that he should put the file back, then elected to put it into his pack. He figured he had enough scrolls on all kinds of elemental jutsu, three full scrolls on each nature change. That, plus the Hiraishin scroll and the box that held the kunai, left little room for any more scrolls. He dispersed his clones in the larger room, rolled up the Fūin no Sho, and moved to the room that held the dangerous...stuff. He had his clones put the candles back, before dispersing them too. He blew out the candles and shut the bookcase. He put the large scroll that had fallen from the bookcase back where it had fallen from. He opened the door and walked out of the room after making sure that everything was back the way it was supposed to be, except for the things in his pack. He made his way into the Hokage's office, closed the door behind him, and jumped out the window. Making sure that the window was in place he turned, jumped back down to the streets below, and into the shadows of a nearby alleyway, keeping watch for patrol. He had one last stop to make before leaving.

He ran through the streets, encountering nobody, until he reached a house. There were no lights on in the house from what he could see, meaning everybody was probably asleep. He snuck around the house into the backyard. He leaped quietly to the second floor balcony and silently set his pack on the wood below. The room was dark, just like the rest of the house, so the occupant was probably asleep. He walked quietly to the door, and slowly slid it open, careful not to make a noise.

The moonlight filtered across the room to a lone figure that lay on the bed before him. He moved quietly to the edge of the bed, lifted his mask off of his head, and looked down at the figure. It had been over three and a half years and since he had seen that pink hair, that thin nose, or those beautiful lips. It had been over three and a half years since he had seen Sakura Haruno.

Sakura shivered slightly from the cool air. Naruto reached out and slowly pulled the covers higher around her, careful not to wake her. His fingers accidentally brushed some of the exposed skin on her arm, while pulling the covers. The feel of the soft, creamy skin sent fire up his arm and into his body.

_'So close...but so far away,'_ he thought to himself stepping back. He wanted to wake her up. He wanted to tell her that he was still fighting to bring Sasuke back for her, that he was still trying to keep his promise. He wanted to tell her so many things. He wanted to tell her that he loved her, that he had always loved her. That she was his light. That she was responsible for him being alive. That he didn't give up because of her. He wanted to wake her up and hold her in his arms, feel her body on his. He wanted to smell her scent just one more time. God, what he would give to look into those emerald eyes again, and see how they shined with the sun. But he couldn't…

He turned slightly and noticed a desk in the corner of the room and saw a small flower in a cup. It was a blue flower, a tulip. The tulip was wilting, slowly dying. For some reason, the sight registered with Naruto. It was a sad sight, and affected Naruto in a strange way. Looking back, he saw that Sakura hadn't moved, so he turned and made his was over to the flower. He reached out to touch it. As soon as he did, the flower began to rise until it was standing straight up. The dull blue color on the outside of the petals turned into a vibrant sapphire. The inside of the petals, instead of turning blue, turned to a soft emerald. A familiar emerald…

Mystified with what had just occurred, he slowly withdrew his hand from the now rejuvenated flower and looked back at Sakura.

A crimson tear slid down his face.

He put on his mask and closed the door quietly. He picked up his pack and disappeared into the night.

* * *

><p>Whew, that was a long one. Hope you enjoyed! I'm not sure when I'll have the next chapter out, but I hope it will be soon!<p>

Just like for the last chapter, I'm gonna go ahead and recommend some NS fics for those people that love the only real pairing in Naruto. Well, I lied, I'm not gonna recommend a specific fic, just an author. Look up **tricksie** here on ff and go read all of her fics. As soon as possible. She's written 6 so far, they're all in-progress, and they're all excellent and some of the best things that I've read anywhere. Which reminds me...I need to go leave a review for her stories, I've failed to do that...but I will! Tomorrow probably...XD

Alright, my rambling is done! Hope you enjoyed this chapter, hope you enjoyed tricksie's work, as well as azfaerydust's _The End of Shadows_ that I recommended last week (good lord, I need to write a review for the latest chapter of that too, it was great XD). Finally, I wish you all a Happy New Year, and hope that you find much success in this upcoming year!

Until next time!


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